Market Wrap, March 10: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Bulls were in command of the equity markets for the third day in a row as exuberance returned to the Street amid marginal ease in bond yields and cheap valuations. The US Treasury yield was last quoted at 1.55 per cent while domestic 10-year government bond yield was at 6.2 per cent.

Amid a fall in volatility, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex advanced 254 points, or 0.5 per cent, to end at 51,279.5 levels. On the NSE, the Nifty50 index ended at 15,175 levels, up 76 points or 0.51 per cent. The Sensex and the Nifty hit their respective intra-day highs of 51,430 and 15,218.

Despite three straight days of gains, the Nifty 50 Index has failed to cross the resistance level of 15250. Given this, Ashish Biswas of CapitalVia suggests investors to wait for a decisive breakout above 15,250.

JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, and Tech Mahindra, all up between 2 per cent and 3 per cent, were the top gainers on the Nifty, while Axis Bank, HCL Tech, Bajaj Auto, Infosys, and Dr Reddy's Labs were the additional top performing stocks on the Sensex.

On the downside, SBI Life, ONGC, Indian Oil Corporation, HDFC Life, UPL, GAIL, Coal India, ITC, Reliance Industries, and HDFC Bank were the top laggards on the indices, down up to 2.5 per cent.

Furthermore, the S&P BSE MidCap index ended 0.7 per cent higher today, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index settled 0.9 per cent higher. Hudco, L&T Infotech, IDBI Bank, MphasiS, Biocon, MTNL, ITDC, Meghmani Organics, and Morepen Labs, that surged in the range of 3 per cent to 20 per cent, were some of the outperforming stocks in the broadr markets.

Among sectoral indices, the Nifty Metal index remained the star performer today, closing 1.87 per cent higher, followed closely by the Nifty IT index (up 1.67 per cent), and the Nifty Pharma index (up 1.48 per cent). On the downside, the Nifty PSU Bank index ended 0.15 per cent lower.  

Global markets

Asian stocks bounced back from a two-month low on Wednesday. Japan’s Nikkei was little changed while MSCI's ex-Japan Asia-Pacific shares index rose 0.2 per cent. The CSI300 index of mainland China's A-shares rose 0.4 per cent.

In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 index edged 0.2 per cent higher. The Dow Jones Futures were last up around 100 points.

Now, let's look at some of the most active stocks of the day:

>> Shares of Quick Heal Technologies soared 18 per cent to hit an intra-day high of Rs 216 after the firm's Board approved to buyback equity shares worth Rs 155 crore at Rs 245 per share. The buyback is for around 10 per cent equity of the firm with the price per share quoting an over 30 per cent premium to the current levels. The stock settled 11.5 per cent higher at Rs 204 on the BSE.

>> That apart, shares of KPIT Technologies, L&T Technology Services, and Mindtree hit their respective record highs on the BSE in intra-day trade today. Besides, Coforge surged nearly 7 per cent, while Larsen & Toubro Infotech gained 4 per cent. Zensar Technologies, LTTS, Wipro, Mindtree and Mphasis advanced in the range of 2 per cent to 3 per cent, while Infosys, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra were up between 1 per cent and 2 per cent in the intra-day deals.

>> Shares of Graphite India and HEG, meanwhile, surged up to 10 per cent on the BSE today on expectation that a pick-up in steel production globally could drive demand for Graphite Electrodes.

Shares of Graphite India hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 517.40, rallying 10 per cent on the BSE while HEG's stock soared 9 per cent to Rs 1,635, trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 1,645.80, touched on March 3.

>> Auto stocks too remained buoyant today, with the Nifty Auto index closing 0.9 per cent up after data provided by industry body SIAM said passenger vehicle sales in India increased 17.92 per cent to over 2.81 lakh units in February as compared with the same month last year. Two-wheeler dispatches to dealers also rose 10.2 per cent to 14.26 lakh units.

>> In the primary market, the public issue of Easy Trip Planners was oversubscribed by 99 times till 4:10 PM on the last day of the issue.

>> Lastly, shares of IndiGo and SpiceJet ended 0.3 per cent and 0.5 per cent down, respectively after rating agency ICRA said it has a negative credit outlook on Indian aviation industry, reflecting a view that financial performance of airlines is likely to remain weak in near-to-medium term amid weak air traffic.

Markets shall remain closed tomorrow, March 11, on account of Mahashivratri holiday.