The benchmark indices firmed up further in early afternoon trade. The Nifty regained the 16,500 mark. Realty shares extended recent losses.
At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, surged 236.29 points or 0.43% at 55,565.61. The Nifty 50 index added 53.30 points or 0.32% at 16,503.80.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.56% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 1.26%. Both the indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 743 shares rose and 2,385 shares fell. A total of 132 shares were unchanged.
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.
Coronavirus Update:
Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 21,18,19,056 with 44,31,554 deaths. India reported 3,33,924 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 4,34,756 deaths while 3,16,80,626 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
India's cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 58.25 crore. Recovery rate of 97.63% is at its highest since March 2020. India reported 25,072 new cases in the last 24 hours. India's active caseload of 3,33,924 is lowest in 155 days. Active cases constitute 1.03% of total cases; lowest since March 2020. Daily positivity rate of 1.94% is less than 3% for last 28 days.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, declined 2.49% to 13.6650. The Nifty 26 August 2021 futures were trading at 16,485.05, at a discount of 18.75 points as compared with the spot at 16,503.80.
The Nifty option chain for 26 August 2021 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 67.1 lakh contracts at the 16,500 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 55.5 lakh contracts was seen at 16,500 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Realty index fell 1.10% to 369.30. The index has lost 7.25% in six sessions.
Sunteck Realty (down 3.46%), Prestige Estate Projects (down 3%), Sobha (down 2.67%), Brigade Enterprises (down 2.40%) and Hemisphere Properties (down 2.35%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Cadila Healthcare surged 4.89% after the pharmaceutical major said that the company has received the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for ZyCoV-D the world's first Plasmid DNA Vaccine for COVID-19.
Arvind Fashions jumped 9.52% after the company's board approved the preferential allotment of equity shares worth Rs 439 crore to various marquee investors including promoters at the price of Rs 218.50.
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