Indices near day's high; TCS jumps 4%

Benchmarks were trading near day's high with strong gains in morning trade. The Nifty 50 index scaled 11,850 level and traded higher. Stellar Q2 results from IT major TCS boosted overall sentiment. Positive global cues also supported gains.

At 10:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, surged 468.66 points or 1.18% at 40,362.63. The Nifty 50 index rallied 129.1 points or 1.1% at 11,867.05.

The broader market lagged the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.83% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.55%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1252 shares rose and 851 shares fell. A total of 109 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

India reported 902,425 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 105,526 deaths while 5,827,704 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 36,077,017 with 1,054,674 deaths.

Earnings Today:

5 Paisa Capital (down 0.07%), GM Breweries (up 0.33%), Prabhat Dairy (up 1.41%) and Titagarh Wagons (up 4.43%) will announce quarterly results today.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Pharma index gained 1.25% to 12,063.85, snapping two days losing streak. The index lost nearly 1% in the past two trading sessions.

Morepen Laboratories (up 11.02%), Marksans Pharma (up 6.53%), Aarti Drugs (up 4.36%), Solara Active Pharma Sciences (up 3.29%), Suven Pharmaceuticals (up 2.52%), Suven Life Sciences (up 2.24%), Cadila Healthcare (up 1.9%), Cipla (up 1.79%), Torrent Pharmaceuticals (up 1.78%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 1.55%) and Sun Pharmaceutical (up 1.51%) were top gainers in pharma segment.

Stocks in Spotlight:

TCS rose 4.38% to Rs 2857.35 after the company reported good sequential numbers in the second quarter and announced a share buyback worth Rs 16,000 crore. The consolidated net profit grew 6.6% and revenue increased 4.73% in Q2 September 2020 (Q2FY21) over Q1 June 2020 (Q1FY21).

TCS said that constant currency revenue for Q2FY21 rose 4.8% quarter-on-quarter. The IT major's operating margin stood at 26.2% in Q2FY21 from 23.6% in Q1FY21. The deal wins stood at $8.6 billion in Q2FY21, against $6.9 billion in Q1FY21. BFSI (+6.2%), Retail and CPG (+8.8%) and life sciences and healthcare (+6.9%) led the growth. Technology & services grew 3.1%, manufacturing +1.4% while communications & media de-grew by 2.4%.

The company's consolidated headcount stood at 453,540 as of 30 September 2020. IT services attrition rate (last twelve months) hit an all-time low at 8.9%.

Meanwhile, the IT major's board approved a proposal to buyback up to 5.33 crore equity shares of the company for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 16,000 crore, being 1.42% of the total paid-up equity share capital, at Rs 3,000 per equity share. The board also declared an interim dividend of Rs 12 per equity share. The record date is set on 15 October 2020.

Infosys (up 3.16%), HDFC Bank (up 1.33%) and HDFC (up 1.14%) also boosted the key indices higher.

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