MARKETS: Sensex ends 383 points up at 37,054; sees biggest jump in 6 months

Here's a look at all that happened in markets today

Following Asian peers, the domestic equity market ended with sharp gains on Monday, led by across-the-board buying, barring IT counter. The S&P BSE Sensex reclaimed the crucial 37,000 mark to end at 37,054, up 383 points or 1 per cent. This is the biggest gain for the index in nearly six months. The 50-share Nifty added 133 points, or 1.23 per cent, to close at 11,068. Out of 50 constituents, 42 ended in the green.

Among sectoral indices, the Nifty PSU Bank index gained 2.25 per cent higher with IDBI Bank and Union Bank being the top gainers. The Nifty Metal index climbed nearly 3 per cent led by gains in Jindal Stainless (Hisar) and Welsun Corp.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Midcap index ended up 290 points, or 1.96 per cent higher at 15,095, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index ended at 14,763, up 234 points, or 1.61 per cent.

SECTOR WATCH

Among individual stocks, Bharti Airtel zoomed over 8 per cent to end at Rs 335. Last week, news reports surfaced the Singapore government’s investment arm GIC will pick up 4 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for Rs 5,000 crore by subscribing to the telco’s Rs 25,000 crore rights issue.

Shares of Godfrey Phillips India surged 11 per cent in the intra-day trade, hitting a 52-week high of the BSE after the company issued a clarification regarding alleged violation of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) laws of India. The cigarettes and tobacco products company said the allegations were"completely misconceived and misplaced". The stock closed at Rs 1,036 apiece, up 10 per cent.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian shares inched up on Monday as Chinese markets rebounded on hopes of more policy support for the slowing economy, but surprisingly weak U.S. employment data raised doubts about the strength of the global economy and limited gains.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4 percent, paring a quarter of Friday’s 1.6 per cent fall, its second-biggest decline so far this year. Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.5 per cent after four consecutive sessions in the red last week.

(With inputs from Reuters)

3:42 PM

Sectoral trends on NSE

3:42 PM

Top gainers and losers on S&P BSE Sensex

3:39 PM

Market at close

The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 37,054.10, up 382 points while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 11,068, up 132.60 points.

3:19 PM

Top gainers (BSE 500)

COMPANY	PRICE (rs)	CHG (rs)	CHG(%)	VOLUME
INFIBEAM AVENUES	44.20	4.80	12.18	3962481
AVANTI FEEDS	455.05	44.20	10.76	289163
HIMATSING. SEIDE	194.05	17.95	10.19	31923
FORBES & CO	2398.55	218.05	10.00	4195
JUBILANT LIFE	844.85	76.35	9.93	74838

3:18 PM

MARKET VIEW :: Morgan Stanley

Our preferred overweight (OW) markets are Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Singapore. We are UW Australia, Mexico and Philippines. We continue to OW Financials and Materials and selective cyclical areas, such as Chinese Autos whilst we are UW Telecoms and IT Hardware.

Across our coverage, our preference hierarchy currently is for CSI300, Topix, MSCI EM (country allocation noted above), with MSCI Asia ex Japan likely to lag, held back by our UW Australia view. We also screen for mega cap stocks with the most upside and downside to MS bottom-up analysts targets.

Photo: Shutterstock

3:16 PM

Motilal Oswal Securities on NTPC

With the uncertainty of regulations now behind, focus should now shift to core performance, which we believe is turning around well. The fixed charge under-recovery has started to decline as domestic coal availability has improved. RoE will improve from ~9% in FY18 to ~13% by FY21E as capitalisation outpaces capex and under-recoveries decline. The stock trades attractively at ~1.1x FY20E P/BV for strong double-digit earnings growth and improving RoE profile. Our revised DCF-based target price is Rs 197/share. Re-iterate Buy.

NTPC

3:04 PM

Top gainers and losers on S&P BSE Sensex

2:51 PM

Top losers on BSE500

COMPANY	PRICE(rs)	CHG(rs)	CHG(%)	VOLUME
REL. COMM.	5.46	-0.39	-6.67	4793294
REC LTD	133.85	-9.25	-6.46	516778
BIRLA CORPN.	531.50	-33.30	-5.90	58509
DEWAN HSG. FIN.	132.60	-7.15	-5.12	2056195
NATL. ALUMINIUM	54.45	-2.40	-4.22	2126153

2:35 PM

Research analysts a fraction of the number of brokers, says Sebi data

Do most brokerages not provide any research services at all? Numbers from the stock market regulator seem to suggest so. The number of research analysts who have already undergone registration with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is 618. There are over 3,984 brokers. This works out to around one research analyst registration for every six brokers. READ MORE

2:25 PM

Most active stocks by volume (BSE500)

COMPANY	PRICE(rs)	CHG(rs)	CHG(%)	VOLUME
SUZLON ENERGY	7.39	0.06	0.82	8586495
REL. COMM.	5.51	-0.34	-5.81	4145014
RELIANCE POWER	11.98	0.01	0.08	4092308
INFIBEAM AVENUES	44.40	5.00	12.69	3795331
CG POWER & INDU.	36.65	0.45	1.24	3160690

2:13 PM

PSBs in focus; Nifty PSU Bank gains 10% in 8 days

Shares of public sector banks (PSBs) continued their northward journey with the Nifty PSU Bank index gaining 10 per cent in past eight trading days on expectation of improving assets quality going forward. In comparison, the benchmark Nifty 50 index was up 3 per cent, while Nifty Bank index gained 4 per cent during the same period. At 01:43 pm, Nifty PSU Bank index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, was up 2.5 per cent, against 1 per cent rise each in Nifty 50 and Nifty Bank indices. READ MORE

1:54 PM

Saudi Arabia to cut crude oil exports in April 'despite strong demand'

Saudi Arabia plans to cut its crude oil exports in April to below 7 million barrels per day (bpd), while keeping its output "well below" 10 million bpd, a Saudi official said on Monday, as the kingdom seeks to drain a supply glut and support oil prices. State-owned Saudi Aramco's oil allocations for April are 635,000 bpd below customers' nominations -- requests made by refiners and clients for Saudi crude, the Saudi official said. READ MORE

1:44 PM

NEWS ALERT | RITES board approves an interim dividend at Rs 4 per share to be paid on March 19

1:32 PM

NEWS ALERT | Sensex reclaims 37,000-mark

1:25 PM

Sectoral trends on NSE