Domestic barometers firmed up further and hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:28, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 302.14 points or 0.83% at 36,773.82. The Nifty 50 index added 93.20 points or 0.87% at 10,833.15.
The broader market outperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.21% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.99%.
Buyers outnumbered sellers. On the BSE, 1537 shares rose and 1002 shares fell. A total of 163 shares were unchanged.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Pharma index was up 0.78%. The index has added 5.93% in eight sessions while the benchmark Nifty 50 index has gained 0.33% during the same period.
Cadila Healthcare (up 3.01%), Lupin (up 2.51%), Divi's Labs (up 2.43%), Cipla (up 1.96%), Sun Pharma (up 1.02%), Biocon (up 0.43%) and Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.23%) advanced.
Alkem Laboratories (down 2.37%), Dr. Reddy's Labs (down 0.99%) and Torrent Pharma (down 0.61%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight :
Britannia Industries slipped 0.98% to Rs 3816. The company's consolidated net profit surged to Rs 545.70 crore in Q1 June 2020 from Rs 251.03 crore in Q1 June 2019. Total revenue from operations rose 26.68% year-on-year to Rs 3,420.67 crore during the quarter.
Varun Berry, the company's managing director, said: As soon as the lockdown was eased, we focused on getting our distribution back to the pre-Covid levels and increasing our rural & hinterland reach. During this period, we also launched 'Winkin Cow Lassi' & a Rs. 5 Layer Cake pack to expand our reach. All the adjacent businesses too delivered a healthy profitable growth.
On the cost front, we witnessed moderate inflation in the prices of key raw materials and expect the prices to be stable going forward given the positive outlook on monsoon & harvest.
We also rationalized media spends considering the constraints of inventories due to higher market demand. These measures helped us improve the shape of our business and record a massive 670 bps increase in operating profit during the quarter.
Granules India jumped 4.19% to Rs 256.25 after the company's consolidated net profit jumped 34% to Rs 111.44 crore on 23.6% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 735.59 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. The company recorded profits of Rs 25.5 crore from both the divested joint ventures.
Krishna Prasad Chigurupati, its chairman & managing director, said: Our long-term investments in backward and forward integration from APIs to FDs are delivering expected results as demonstrated by new product launches and increase in market share of our existing products. Our regulated markets (North America and Europe) contributed 71% of revenues in Q1FY21. Our first quarter performance gives us confidence that we are on track to end the year as per the plan.
Numbers to Track:
The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper fell to 5.807% compared with previous closing of 5.813% in the previous trading session.
In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee edged lower to 75.02 compared with its previous closing 75.18.
In the commodities market, Brent crude for September 2020 settlement slipped 38 cents to $42.99 a barrel. The contract lost 0.96% or 42 cents to end at $43.79 in the previous trading session .
MCX Gold futures for 5 August 2020 settlement fell 0.05% to Rs 48,750.
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