Indices bounce back; insurance stocks correct

Key equity indices reversed early losses and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade as investors digested the details of the Union Budget. The Nifty scaled 11,700 level.

At 10:23 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 204.21 points or 0.51% at 39,939.74. The Nifty 50 index was up 51.35 points or 0.44% at 11,713.20.

The broader market traded with a positive bias. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.93% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.22%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was still negative. On the BSE, 810 shares rose and 989 shares fell. A total of 100 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 37 stocks advanced while 13 stocks declined.

 

Buzzing Index:

Insurance stocks continued to plummet as the new tax regime announced in the Union Budget took away exemptions for insurance policies for taxpayers. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said if taxpayers adopt the new tax regime, they will have to forego exemptions that they avail. This also includes tax exemptions for insurance premiums. So far the tax payers used life insurance policies and ULIPS (unit-linked insurance plans) to fill their quota of tax deductions.

Shares of life insurance companies were also under pressure on the government's plan to divest stake in Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

The New India Assurance (down 4.22%), HDFC Life Insurance (down 2.34%), General Insurance Coporation of India (down 1.25%), SBI Life Insurance (down 1.12%), ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (down 0.97%) and ICICI Lombard General Insurance (down 0.28%) were top losers in insurance segment.

Q3 Earnings:

Ujjivan Financial Services (up 0.41%), Godrej Properties (up 2.81%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.48%), Century Plyboards (down 3.39%), Affle (India) (down 0.45%), Tata Chemicals (down 0.88%), Shalby (up 1.12%), Shriram Transport Finance (down 0.26%), SRF (up 1%), Deepak Nitrite (up 1.88%), Dhampur Sugar Mills (down 0.05%), Dr. Lal Path Labs (up 1.56%), Galaxy Surfactants (up 2.98%), Bayer Cropscience (down 2.49%), Gujrat Borosil (down 1.76%), Hawkins Cookers (up 0.54%), Honeywell Automation (up 0.36%), JBM Auto (down 2.86%), HUDCO (up 0.51%), MRPL (up 0.57%), Unichem Laboratories (down 0.94%) and HSIL (down 0.19%) are some of the companies that will announce their Q3 December 2019 earnings today.

Q3 Results:

Amara Raja Batteries surged 3.49% to Rs 769.10 after consolidated net profit jumped 25.42% to Rs 164.16 crore in Q3 December 2019 from Rs 130.89 crore in Q3 December 2018. The company's net revenue from operations in the December quarter stood at Rs 1747.81 crore, up 3.14% from Rs 1694.66 crore in the same period last year. The result was announced after market hours on Saturday, 1 February 2020.

Relaxo Footwear was down 0.28%. On a standalone basis, Relaxo's net profit jumped 52% to Rs 54.16 crore in Q3 December 2019 as against Rs 35.62 crore reported in Q3 December 2018. Net sales for the quarter ending December 2019 stood at Rs 599.83 crore, rising 8.8% on YoY basis.

Sobha rose 1.98% at Rs 437.4. The realtor reported 4.9% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 73.20 crore in Q3 December 2019 from Rs 69.80 crore in Q3 December 2018. Profit before tax (PBT) in the December quarter stood at Rs 116.40 crore, up 6.2% from Rs 109.60 crore in Q3 December 2018. Net sales witnessed 12.1% rise to Rs 883.20 crore in Q3 December 2019 from Rs 787.90 crore in Q3 December 2018.

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