The key equity indices further extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in mid-morning trade. The Nifty hovered near the 15,100 mark. All the sectoral indices on the NSE were in the green. Banks and financial shares were in demand.
At 11:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 682.94 points or 1.38% to 50,247.80. The Nifty 50 index added 190.20 points or 1.28% to 15,096.25.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.93% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.99%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1960 shares rose and 874 shares fell. A total of 139 shares were unchanged.
COVID-19 Update:
Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 165,530,873 with 3,430,323 global deaths.
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India reported 30,27,925 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 2,91,331 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
The daily rise in coronavirus cases in India remained below 3 lakh for the fifth consecutive day with 2.59 lakh new cases recorded in a single day, according to health ministry's updated data on Friday. This as deaths remained over 4,000.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Metal index rose 1.08% to 5,132.15 on value buying. The index declined 4.09% in the past two sessions.
Welspun Corp (up 3.63%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 2.27%), Hindustan Zinc (up 2%), SAIL (up 1.85%), Tata Steel (up 1.17%), JSW Steel (up 1.14%), Mishra Dhatu Nigam (up 1.15%), Coal India (up 1.06%) and Hindalco Industries (up 0.73%) advanced.
Earnings Impact:
Torrent Power surged 6.24% to Rs 457.70. The company's consolidated net profit stood at Rs 398.10 crore in Q4 FY21 compared with net loss of Rs 273.94 crore in Q4 FY20. Net sales rose 3.4% to Rs 3,084.13 crore in Q4 FY21 as against Rs 2,983.50 crore in Q4 FY20.
JK Lakshmi Cement jumped 8.07% to Rs 504.80. The cement maker's standalone net profit increased 35.5% to Rs 136.51 crore on 24.6% jump in net sales to Rs 1321.99 crore in Q4 FY21 over Q4 FY20.
Despite hike in the prices of inputs like pet coke, diesel, fly ash, gypsum, the company improved its profitability on account of substantial higher volumes, higher realisations, improved efficiency, improved product mix etc.
Global Markets:
Asian stocks were trading mixed on Friday following an overnight bounce on Wall Street.
U.S. stocks rose on Thursday, rebounding from three straight days of losses as technology shares staged a comeback, while the latest jobless claims totaling a fresh pandemic-era low also boosted sentiment.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped further below 500,000 last week. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 34,000 to a seasonally adjusted 444,000 for the week ended May 15, the Labor Department said. That was the lowest since mid-March 2020 and held claims below 500,000 for two straight weeks.
U.S. Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell turned up the heat on cryptocurrencies on Thursday, saying they pose risks to financial stability, and indicating that greater regulation of the increasingly popular electronic currency may be warranted.
The Treasury Department, meanwhile, flagged its concerns that wealthy individuals could use the largely unregulated sector to avoid tax and said it wanted big crypto asset transfers reported to authorities.
Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas has reportedly agreed to a cease-fire Thursday, halting a bruising 11-day war that caused widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip, brought life in much of Israel to a standstill and left more than 200 people dead.
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