Equity benchmarks continued to trade with decent gains in early afternoon trade amid significant volatility. At 12:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 104.79 points or 0.29% at 36,156.60. The Nifty 50 index added 25.45 points or 0.24% at 10,643.65.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was off 0.20% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.77%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 754 shares rose and 1627 shares fell. A total of 122 shares were unchanged.
Coronavirus Update:
India reported 3,31,146 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 24,915 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Total coronavirus cases worldwide stood at 13,556,202 with 584,139 deaths so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 1.35% to 25.9325. The Nifty July 2020 futures were trading at 10,637.10, at a discount of 6.55 points compared with the spot at 10,643.65.
On the weekly index options front, the Nifty option chain for 23 July 2020 expiry showed maximum Call Open Interest (OI) of 9.11 lakh contracts at the 11,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 7.78 lakh contracts was seen at 10,500 strike price.
On the monthly index options front, the Nifty option chain for 30 July 2020 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 26.60 lakh contracts at the 11,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 33.29 lakh contracts was seen at 10,000 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Media index fell 2.16% to 1,314.45, underperforming other sectoral indices on the NSE. The index has fallen 4.50% in three trading sessions.
Among the index constituents, Network 18 Media (down 4.95%), DBCorp (down 3.88%), TV18 Broadcast (down 3.94%), Dish TV India (down 3.92%), Zee Entertainment (down 2.78%), Balaji Telefilms (down 2.51%), Sun TV Network (down 1.08%), Zee Media Corp (down 0.92%), Saregama India (down 0.78%), TV Today Network (down 0.63%), Jagran Prakashan (down 0.51%) and Jump Networks (down 0.26%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Cochin Shipyard rose 1.89% to Rs 329.15 after the company said it won a contract from Norway's ASKO Maritime AS for constructing two autonomous electric ferries with an option to build two more such ships. ASKO Maritime AS is a unit of Norges Gruppen ASA, one of the largest players in the Norwegian retail segment.
Larsen & Toubro Infotech's consolidated net profit fell 2.6% to Rs 416.40 crore on 2.08% decline in revenue from operations to Rs 2,949.20 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q4 March 2020.
EBITDA rose 2.38% to Rs 592 crore in Q1 FY21 as against Rs 578.20 crore in Q4 FY20. EBITDA margin stood at 20.1% in Q1 FY21 as against 19.2% in Q4 FY20 and 18.4% in Q1 FY20. The scrip rose 3.47% to Rs 2271.6 on the BSE.
Titan Company fell 1.75% to Rs 951. The company said that the lockdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to hit the company's businesses very substantially in the financial year 2020-21. The company expects the economy to shrink, and tight regulations on operations of stores to continue for some time.
"Customers can also be expected to be wary of stepping out of their homes for some time. With job losses expected to increase substantially and salaries expected to fall or stay flat at best, spends on discretionary products could get affected more," Titan said in its annual report for 2019-20.
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