Indices hit day's high; Nifty above 14,900 mark

The barometer indices edged higher and hit the day's high in morning trade. The Nifty reclaimed the 14,900 mark. All sectoral indices on the NSE were trading in the green. At 10:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 478.12 points or 0.96% at 50,327.53. The Nifty 50 index was up 143.15 points or 0.97% at 14,904.7.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.21% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.03%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1719 shares rose and 762 shares fell. A total of 161 shares were unchanged.

 

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 114,417,054 with 2,537,563 deaths. India reported 168358 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 157248 deaths while 10798921 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Economy:

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of February 2021 came at Rs 1,13,143 crore of which CGST stood at Rs 21,092 crore, SGST at Rs 27,273 crore, IGST at Rs 55,253 crore (including Rs 24,382 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess at Rs 9,525 crore (including Rs 660 crore collected on import of goods).

The GST revenues crossed Rs 1 lakh fifth time in a row and crossed Rs 1.1 lakh crore third time in a row post pandemic despite this being revenue collection of the month of February. The GST revenues for February are 7% higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. During the month, revenue from import of goods was 15% higher and the revenues from domestic transactions are 5% higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year.

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that on the first day of Telecom spectrum auction yesterday, winning bids received till 6 PM were worth 77 thousand 146 crore rupees. This has already substantially exceeded pre-bid estimates of 45 thousand crore rupees. He said, bidding took place for spectrum in 800, 900, 1,800, 2,100 and 2,300 Megahertz. Mr Prasad said, participants did not bid for 700 and 2,500 Megahertz. The auction of spectrum commenced at 10 AM yesterday and four rounds of bidding took place till 6 PM. Another one or two rounds are expected today. Three bidders, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio Infocomm are participating in the auction.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT gained 1.88% to 25,018.65, rising for second trading session in a row. The index added 2.95% in two days.

L&T Infotech (up 3.63%), Mindtree (up 2.77%), Tech Mahindra (up 2.33%), Wipro (up 2.2%), Infosys (up 2.19%), TCS (up 1.64%) and Coforge (up 1.43%) were top gainers in IT segment.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Cipla surged 1.27%. The drug major has received final approval for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Sumatriptan nasal spray, 20 mg from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). The product is an AB-rated generic therapeutic equivalent version of GlaxoSmithKline's Imitrex nasal spray. Imitrex is a serotonin (5-HT1B/1D) receptor agonist (triptan) indicated for acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults. Separately, Cipla announced that its subsidiary, Cipla Gulf FZ LCC, is expanding its partnership with Alvotech for the marketing and distribution of four biosimilar medicines in Australia and New Zealand.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) fell 1.79% after the company informed about the termination of all existing contracts of mobile catering. In a regulatory filing made after market hours on Monday (1 March 2021), the company said that Ministry of Railways, in compliance of orders of High Court of Judicature at Madras, has directed IRCTC to terminate all existing contracts of mobile catering (currently kept in abeyance) involving scope of work of providing cooked food to passengers prepared from base kitchens as per the existing terms and conditions.

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