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Wipro down 8%; Reliance and ICICI Bank top drags

All three reported a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in their revenues in the December quarter.

Markets reel as proposed STT hike on futures sparks heavy sell-off, dragging Sensex down over 2,000 points before a partial recovery.Markets reel as proposed STT hike on futures sparks heavy sell-off, dragging Sensex down over 2,000 points before a partial recovery. (File)

Earnings of some big names in the Nifty50 index over the weekend failed to impress the market with shares of Wipro, Reliance Industries, and ICICI Bank ending sharply lower Monday.

All three reported a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in their revenues in the December quarter. However, Wipro and ICICI Bank saw their net profit fall. RIL’s profit growth remained nearly flat. Market participants also pointed out a host of issues for the three. Weighed down by these stocks — ICICI Bank and RIL have a combined weightage of 17% in the index — the Nifty50 ended 0.5% lower at 25,557.30 points on Monday.

Wipro’s net profit dips

IT services company Wipro’s consolidated revenue for the quarter grew 6% year-on-year to Rs 23,555.80 crore. However, its net profit fell 7% to Rs 3,119 crore, weighed down by a nearly 7% rise in employee expenses likely on account of the impact of the new Labour Codes implemented in December.

While the performance was broadly stable, many were especially underwhelmed by the company’s expectations for the March quarter: IT services revenue of $2.69 billion, representing a mere 0-2% growth from Q3 in constant currency terms, that is, after eliminating the impact of currency fluctuations.

The IT major’s deal wins — the contracts awarded to a company over a period, an important metric to gauge future performance of IT companies — during the quarter under consideration also fell to a six-quarter low of $3.34 billion, down nearly 6% y-o-y in constant currency terms.

The weak deal wins, alongside muted Q3 performance, with better numbers reported by rivals TCS and Infosys, led to the stock falling 9% at its intraday low. Wipro ended the day 8.2% lower at Rs 245.50. “Q4 will see impact from delayed ramp-ups and fewer working days. Overall, the quarter was lacklustre and highlighted persistent growth challenges, strong LTM (long-term) deal bookings are yet to translate into revenue,” said broking firm JM Financial.

RIL’s near-flat growth

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries saw its consolidated net profit growth rise just around 1% to Rs 18,645 crore, while its revenue grew 11% to Rs 2,93,829 crore. Despite steady performance of its oil-to-chemicals vertical and strong growth of its telecom operations, some sections raised concerns regarding the lagging growth of its retail segment. “RIL’s Q3FY26 consolidated EBITDA of Rs 460 bn (Rs 46,000 crore) was flat q-o-q, and 3% below our estimate. The miss can be mainly attributed to softer-than-anticipated results for retail, while the performance of other business segments was largely in line,” Nomura said in a report. Due to these concerns, the stock ended 3.1% lower at Rs 1,413.20 on Monday.

ICICI Bank takes provisioning hit

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ICICI Bank, which comes in the top 3 among Indian banks by market capitalisation, recorded 2% growth in total income (revenue from loans and other investments) to Rs 49,334 crore during the quarter.

However, its net profit fell 4% to Rs 11,317.86 crore due to a one-off provision of Rs 1,283 crore as per the RBI’s direction.

This was related to non-compliance with RBI’s requirements found in the bank’s portfolio of agricultural priority sector credit facilities. Barring the provision, most experts were positive regarding the bank’s Q3 performance, especially after it extended the tenure of MD and CEO Sandeep Bakhshi. The stock ended 2.4% lower at Rs 1,377.70 on Monday.

 

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