Bulls lift indices to new closing peak; Sensex up 458 pts; pharma stks gain

The Nifty Pharma index edged up 3 per cent, followed by gains in the Nifty PSB index (up 2.3 per cent), and the Nifty Pruvate Bank index (up 2 per cent)

Stock market updates: Benchmark indices hit new milestones on Wednesday as economic recovery hopes, on the back of growth-driven Budget, positive global cues, and healthy FII buying continued to please investors.

Among the headline indices, the S&P BSE Sensex hit a fresh record high of 50,526 in the intra-day trade today, supported by buying in HDFC, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, and Reliance Industries. The BSE barometer, however, witnessed mild profit-booking at higher levels but managed to end the day at fresh closing peak of 50,256 levels, up 458 points or 0.92 per cent.

IndusInd Bank, up 7.3 per cent, settled the day as top gainer on the index after global brokerage Morgan Stanley raised its target price on the stock to Rs 1,225 apiece.In their bull-case scenario, the stock price is seen at Rs 2,030.

That apart, PowerGrid, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Dr Reddy's Labs, NTPC, and Tech Mahindra were the top gainers on the index. On the downside, losses in UltraTech Cement, Maruti Suzuki, ITC, and Kotak Mahindra Bank capped gains.

The broader Nifty50 index, on the other hand, settled the day at new closing high of 14,790, adding 142 points or 0.97 per cent. The index hit a fresh record peak of 14,869 earlier today. A total of 10 stocks declined on the index today including Shree Cement, UltraTech Cement, UPL, Maruti Suzuki, Grasim, and Asian Paints.

The broader markets, meanwhile, outran their benchmark peers after three straight days of underperformance. The S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices ended 1.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent higher, respectively.  

The trend among sectoral indices was largely positive. The Nifty Pharma index edged up 3 per cent, followed by gains in the Nifty PSB index (up 2.3 per cent), and the Nifty Private Bank index (up 2 per cent). On the downside, the Nifty Realty index eased 0.5 per cent.

Global markets

Asian shares and US stock futures rose on Wednesday as governments around the world looked poised to boost spending to help economies recover from the coronavirus and vaccine roll-out programmes accelerated.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.58 per cent, Australian stocks gained 0.92 per cent, while shares in China fell 0.03 per cent. Japan's Nikkei added 0.9 per cent. 

In Europe, shares rose for the third session on Wednesday amid healthy corporate earnings. Germany's DAX index gained 0.8 per cent, while the STOXX 600 index rose 0.9 per cent.

(With inputs from Reuters) 

4:02 PM

IPO Update :: Brookfield REIT issue subscribed just 9% till 3:30 PM on day 1

4:00 PM

BUDGET BOOST :: Nifty CPSE index advances 3% on divestment hopes

3:58 PM

SECTOR WATCH :: Realty stocks slip on profit-booking

3:57 PM

SECTOR WATCH :: PSBs extend rally into third day on recap, privatisation hope

3:55 PM

Dr Reddy's Labs settles 4% higher on Sputnik V jab

3:52 PM

STOCK OF THE STOCK :: Tata Motors' m-cap tops Rs 1-trillion m-cap

3:51 PM

STOCK OF THE DAY :: IndusInd Bank ends over 7% higher

3:50 PM

NEW STOCK ON THE BLOCK :: Home First Finance erases gains, stock ends 2% higher against issue price

3:47 PM

Sectoral trends on NSE :: Realty, FMCG stocks slip in a strong market

3:40 PM

Sensex Heatmap :: IndusInd Bank jumps 7.5%, Maruti Suzuki slips 1%

3:35 PM

CLOSING BELL

Among the headline indices, the S&P BSE Sensex hit a fresh record high of 50,526 in the intra-day trade today, supported by buying in HDFC, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, and Reliance Industries. The BSE barometer, however, witnessed mild profit-booking at higher levels but managed to end the day at fresh closing peak of 50,256 levels, up 458 points or 0.92 per cent.
 

The broader Nifty50 index, on the other hand, settled the day at new closing high of 14,790, adding 142 points or 0.97 per cent. The index hit a fresh record peak of 14,869 earlier today. 

3:30 PM

Dec Quarter Result :: Deepak Nitrite soars 8% on Rs 87.6 cr PAT

>> Revenue up 29.3% YoY at Rs 1,447.1 cr Vs Rs 1,119.5 cr
 

>> EBITDA up 99.7% at Rs 216.8 cr Vs Rs 108.5 cr YoY

>> EBITDA margin at 15% Vs 9.7%

 

>> Other income at Rs 9.1 cr Vs Rs 41.3 cr

>> Tax expense at Rs 41.1 cr Vs Rs 4.7 cr
 

3:23 PM

RBI unveils risk-based audit guidelines for select NBFCs, urban co-op banks

All the deposit-taking non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and the ones with an asset size of over Rs 5,000 crore, and urban co-operatives banks (UCBs) with assets of over Rs 500 crore will have to migrate to the new system, the RBI said.

 

Currently, all the entities supervised by the RBI have their own approaches on internal audit, resulting in certain inconsistencies, risks and gaps in the system, the RBI said. READ MORE

3:08 PM

BUZZING STOCK:: Pi Industries rallies 9%

3:08 PM

BROKERAGE VIEW :: Prabhudas Lilladher on Triveni Turbine

TP: Rs 98 | Reco: Buy

>> Triveni Turbine Ltd (TRIV) reported decent performance on account of better product mix and cost rationalization measures. Margins came in stable at 20% driven by better sales mix, lower raw material cost and reduction in overhead cost. OI declined by 26% YoY largely impacted on account of delay in order finalization in both domestic/exports markets.

>> Going ahead, management expects recovery to be gradual as uncertainty due to pandemic continues and expect revenue decline of 10-15% with margins being in the similar range of 9M (~21-23%) for FY21E. We believe, company’s strong margin profile, lean working capital, healthy cash flows (~Rs3bn), balance sheet and long term growth prospects (~diversification in new types of turbines) will support its valuation and long term growth prospects. The stock is currently trading at 23.2x/24.6x/21.3x FY21E/22E/23E. We rolled our estimates to FY23 and maintain a BUY rating with a revised TP of Rs98 (earlier TP of Rs85) valuing at 24x FY23E EPS of Rs4.1.