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Barometers sharply pare gains; IT shares advance

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Capital Market
Last Updated : Aug 23 2021 | 11:31 AM IST

After opening higher, the key equity indices sharply pared gains in morning trade. The Nifty was currently at 16,500 mark. IT stocks were in demand while metal shares extended recent losses.

At 10:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 214.08 points or 0.39% to 55,543.40. The Nifty 50 index added 49.60 points or 0.30% to 16,500.10.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.46% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 1.13%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 828 shares rose and 2062 shares fell. A total of 130 shares were unchanged.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) reportedly sold over Rs 4,300 crore of Indian equities last week as they look to safer havens after the US Fed said it would start tapering. The rupee has dropped to Rs 74.39 against the US dollar. This is also a consequence of the Fed's taper talk.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 211,816,904 with 4,431,068 global deaths.

India reported 333,924 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 434,756 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Economy:

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman, will launch the National Monetisation Pipeline on Monday (23 August) at New Delhi.

The National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) comprises a four-year pipeline of the Central Government's brownfield infrastructure assets. Besides providing visibility to investors, NMP will also serve as a medium-term roadmap for the Asset Monetisation initiative of the Government.

The Union Budget 2021-22 laid a lot of emphasis on Asset Monetisation as a means to raise innovative and alternative financing for infrastructure, and included a number of key announcements.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve said that railway has suffered a loss of Rs 36,000 crore due to the corona pandemic. Railway is facing a 48% loss in passenger service. He was speaking in an event organised at Jalna Railway station in Maharashtra. Danve said, Mumbai-Nagpur High Speed train project is an ambitious project of the railway ministry and it is on priority list. Doubling of tracks between Manmad and Nanded will also be completed on priority basis. But other railway projects will be done after checking the feasibility of the project.

New Listings:

Shares of Nuvoco Vistas Corporation, India's fifth-largest cement maker, were currently trading at Rs 538, at a discount of 5.61% compared with the issue price of Rs 570 per share. The scrip was listed at Rs 471 per share, at a discount of 17.36% to the initial public offer (IPO) price.

So far, the stock has hit a high of Rs 547.15 and a low of Rs 471. On the BSE, over 4.22 lakh shares of the company were traded in the counter.

The initial public offer of Nuvoco Vistas Corporation received bids for 10.70 crore shares as against 6.25 crore shares on offer, according to stock exchange data. The issue was subscribed 1.71 times. The issue opened for bidding on 9 August 2021 and closed on 11 August 2021. The price band of the IPO was fixed at Rs 560-570 per share.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index rose 2.06% to 34,038.85. The index had declined 0.29% on Friday. In the past three months, the index has gained 30.20% while the benchmark Nifty has added 8.64% during the same period.

HCL Tech (up 3.42%), Mphasis (up 3.32%), MindTree (up 3.05%), Tech Mahindra (up 2.74%), Wipro (up 2.23%), TCS (up 2.10%), Larsen & Toubro Infotech (up 1.97%), Coforge (up 1.63%) and Infosys (up 0.52%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

SRF added 0.88% to Rs 8979.95. The company informed that a meeting of the board of directors of the will be held on Tuesday, 31 August 2021 to consider issuance of bonus shares.

Ramkrishna Forgings fell 1.69% to Rs 858.25. The company said that its board will meet on Friday, 27 August 2021, to consider fund raising plans. The funds would be raised via issue of either equity or debt or any other methods or combination thereof, subject to necessary approvals.

Aurobindo Pharma rose 2.24% to Rs 696.70. The company has terminated the agreement to acquire 51% ownership in Cronus Pharma. The company, on August 12, 2021, had entered into binding agreements with Cronus Pharma Specialities India for acquisition of 51% ownership in Cronus Pharma for an aggregate consideration of Rs 420 crore.

Cronus is a pharmaceutical company developing, manufacturing and distributing generic veterinary pharmaceutical products. Cronus has a factory at Hyderabad with 67 products in its pipeline, of which 22 have been filed and 6 have been approved by the Centre for Veterinary Medicine, USFDA. The acquisition would reportedly have provided Aurobindo Pharma a foothold in the $48 billion global animal health market.

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First Published: Aug 23 2021 | 10:27 AM IST

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