Key benchmarks came off the day's high in afternoon trade. The Nifty hovered around 12,000 mark. Buying was seen in banks, metals and realty stocks.
At 12:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 333.10 points or 0.82% at 40,877.47. The Nifty 50 index added 95.55 points or 0.80% at 11,992.35.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.93% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.50%.
The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,482 shares rose and 1,026 shares fell. A total of 164 shares were unchanged.
COVID-19 Update:
India reported 740,090 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 115,914 deaths while 6,795,103 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 40,728,371 with 1,123,967 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Gainers & Losers:
Power Grid Corporation of India (up 4.39%), NTPC (up 3.53%), Tata Steel (up 3.71%), Hindalco Inds (up 3.32%) and IndusInd Bank (up 2.73%) were top Nifty gainers.
Britannia Inds (down 2.15%), Hero MotoCorp (down 2.09%), SBI Life (down 0.89%) and Nestle India (down 0.87%) and TCS (down 0.86%) were major Nifty losers.
Earnings Today:
UltraTech Cement (up 0.76%), Bajaj Finance (down 0.14%), Bajaj Finserv (up 0.48%), Syngene (down 0.69%), Colgate Palmolive (down 0.78%), GMM Pfaudler (up 0.39%), Chennai Petroleum (up 4.42%), DB Corp (up 1.12%), JK Tyres & Industries (up 1.36%), KPIT Technologies (up 0.40%), Tejas Networks (up 8.14%) and VST Industries (down 0.20%) will announce their quarterly earnings today.
Earnings Impact:
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Infotech jumped 5% after the company reported 9.70% gains in consolidated net profit to Rs 456.80 crore on 1.7% rise in revenues to Rs 2,998.40 crore in Q2 September 2020 (Q2FY21) over Q1 June 2020 (Q2FY20). EBITDA jumped 15.8% to Rs 685.60 crore in Q2FY21 over Q1FY21. EBITDA margin grew 22.9% in Q2 FY21 as against 20.1% in Q1 FY21.
CRISIL fell 2% after the credit rating agency recorded a 14.2% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 90.23 crore on a 11.3% rise in net sales to Rs 484.99 crore in Q3 September 2020 over Q3 September 2019. CRISIL said appreciating rupee had an impact on the quarter. Capital markets issuers declined materially by 21% during the quarter, while systemic credit growth remained subdued. Despite the weak environment, CRISIL Ratings strengthened its leading position in the corporate bond market. The Global Analytical Center (GAC) increased its coverage for S&P Global Ratings, including support for key initiatives such as environmental, social and governance evaluations, and inferencing impact of Covid-19. Overall, given the slackness, the segment de-grew 4% during the third quarter.
Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) dipped 2.29% after the company posted a 9.2% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 44.33 crore in Q2 September 2020 from Rs 48.82 crore in Q2 September 2019. Consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 70.92 crore in Q2 September 2020, registering a 5.1% rise from Rs 67.45 crore posted in the same period last year. The electricity volumes on the Exchange witnessed an increase of 13.2% YoY in Q2 September 2020 and stood at 16,486 MU as compared to 14,560 MU in Q2 September 2019. IEX said the second quarter of fiscal year 2021 saw a sharp recovery in industrial activity and electricity consumption owing to easing of the lockdown restrictions across the country. The start of the second quarter saw a slump in manufacturing due to re-lockdowns in a few states, however, the industrial activity picked up momentum in the months of August and September 2020.
Hindustan Zinc spurted 4.48%. The company's net profit declined 6.8% to Rs 1940 crore on 24% rise in net sales to Rs 5533 crore in Q2 September 2020 over Q2 September 2019. The company said that the increase in revenue was led by higher metal volumes, higher silver prices aided by rupee depreciation partly offset by lower zinc & lead LME prices. Net profit declined year-on-year due to higher depreciation & amortization, finance cost and higher tax rate due to change in income mix. The company's board approved an interim dividend of Rs 21.30 per share for the financial year 2020-21 amounting to Rs 9,000 crore.
Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company declined 1.56% after the company posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 90.68 in Q2 September 2020 as against net profit of Rs 89.51 crore in Q2 September 2019. Consolidated net sales for Q2 September 2020 stood at Rs 217.08 crore, falling 61% from Rs 555.25 crore in the same period last year. The company's revenue from polyester segment fell 34.48% year-on-year to Rs 175.84 crore during the quarter. Real estate segment revenue fell 82% to Rs 34.82 crore and textile segment revenue slumped 93.13% to Rs 6.42 crore in Q2 September 2020 over Q2 September 2019.
Global Markets:
European markets opened lower while most Asian stocks advanced on Wednesday as investors continued to monitor the development on the US fiscal stimulus front.
The US stock market finished session higher on Tuesday, 20 October 2020, as risk sentiments underpinned on continued hope the lawmakers will eventually agree on a stimulus plan sometime soon.
Reports that Moderna's coronavirus vaccine could be available for emergency use in December if it gets positive results from interim trial in November further aided sentiment.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have made good progress during talks, before adding that they still have a ways to go before an agreement is reached.
Tech shares shook off the US Justice Department's decision to sue Google for allegedly abusing its power. Alphabet's shares rose 1.4%. Procter & Gamble shares climbed 0.4% after reporting sales growth of 9% for the previous quarter. Shares of insurer Travelers gained 5.6% as it beat quarterly profit expectations. But IBM shares fell 6.5% after it refused to issue a current quarter outlook.
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