Sensex ends 460 pts up, Nifty tops 17,350 on last day of year; Metal, Auto surge

Sensex rose 459.50 points or 0.80% to close the year at 58,253.82, while Nifty was up 150.10 points or 0.87% at 17,354.05.

Hindalco, Titan, Ultratech Cement, Tata Motors, and Kotak Bank were among the top gainers on Nifty. NTPC, Cipla, Tech Mahindra, Powergrid, and SBI Life fell the most.

All sectoral indices ended in the green with banks, auto, metal, financial services, FMCG, oil & gas indices rising 1-2%. All the broad market indices also ended in the green.

The BSE Sensex hovered between 57,846.52 and 58,409.30 during the day. Only four of the 30 Sensex stocks ended in the red. Titan was the top gainer in the pack. 

BSE midcap and smallcap indices rose over 1% each.

“2021 has been a year of recovery, rehabilitation, and establishing a base for future growth. 2022 will be a little more volatile but will still be very good for equity investors in India. 2022 is very likely to be another year of good double-digit returns and continued wealth creation. Autos, Banks, and Capital goods, literally the A B C of equity markets, will be the most interesting sectors for 2022.”

As skyrocketing prices of primary raw materials have been hurting the industry, especially MSMEs, the government should consider including iron and steel products in the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme to make exports more competitive, Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC India) said on Friday.

Markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), on Friday informed market intermediaries about the updated list of entities and individuals under the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions.

Multibagger stock: Despite range-bound trend at Indian stock market, ASM Technologies share price has been in the uptrend for last one month. In fact, the mid-cap IT stock has hit 5 per cent upper circuit for the 14th successive trading session on Friday.

ASM Technologies shares started hitting upper circuit after the company's clarification to the BSE in regard to its stock price rally in December 2021. In its reply to BSE on 10th December 2021, the company had made it clear that uptick in the company's stock was purely market driven and the management was not concerned with skyrocketing of ASM Technologies share price.  

Hindustan Unilever Ltd., India's largest consumer goods firm, has said it has a “long-standing relationship" with its distributors and remains committed to ensuring that they earn a fair return on their investments. The statement is aimed at allaying concerns of pricing disparity of goods for traditional distributors and organised business-to-business (B2B) platforms.

HUL’s response comes a day after salesmen of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) pledged to stop selling select products of the company in Maharashtra from January 1, citing concerns over the company's inability to engage in a dialogue with the distributor community over the pricing disparity between traditional distributors and organised B2B distributors such as Udaan and JioMart.

To enhance its digital footprint, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) of India has launched 'Digi Zone' to enhance its digital operations in areas of sales and customer services.

The insurer said, "With an intention to become a tech driven life insurer, LIC will offer information regarding LIC products and services through kiosks installed in the premises. Customers can use LIC’s Digi Zone to buy policies online, pay premium and avail other services as well. Soon after the inauguration, the operation went live by walk-in customers who made digital transactions in the new “LIC Digi Zone"."

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council on Friday deferred hiking the GST on textiles from 5% to 12%. The 46th meeting of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council held in the national capital under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The Indian media and entertainment industry is estimated to touch $55-$70 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 10-12% driven mainly by strong growth in digital segments like OTT (over-the-top) streaming platforms, gaming, animation and VFX, according to the latest report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The industry is valued at $26 billion-$28 billion in 2021.

CMS Info Systems shares made tepid debut at Indian stock market today. The public issue of the cash management company opened at ₹220 on NSE, near 2 per cent higher from its upper price band of ₹216 per equity share. However, soon after the listing, CMS Info Systems share price appreciated to the tune of ₹250 per share levels helping allottees to maximise their listing gain. According to experts, profit-booking may trigger anytime in the scrip, so, one should book profit at current levels and look for other better option in the market. However, they said that those who are determined to take fresh position in the counter can buy in ₹200 to ₹215 range for ₹275 to ₹300 per share target in next 3 to 6 months.

NEW DELHI: SBI Mutual Fund’s Fixed Maturity Plan (FMP)- Series 58 (1842 days) is available for subscription during the NFO (new fund offer) period that is open till 4 January 2022.

With a tenure of 1842 days, the scheme will mature on the expiry of the tenure of the scheme from the date of allotment. This is part of the fund’s proposed schemes to be launched under SBI Fixed Maturity Plan (FMP) - Series 51 to 60.

eClerx Services (eClerx) provides business process management, automation and analytics services. It caters to financial services, communications, retail, media, manufacturing, travel and technology companies.

eClerx share price has grown by around 1.8x over the past five years, from around ₹1,357 in December 2016 to ₹2,419 levels in December 2021. The domestic brokerage and research firm ICICI Securities remains positive on the multibagger stock, that has rallied 188% in 2021 and maintains its Buy rating. 

With the worst of asset quality concerns behind us amid resolution of big ticket stressed assets and economic optimism in the post-Covid era, Nifty earnings CAGR is impressively placed at 25.7% in FY21E-23E. We value the Nifty at 20,000 i.e. 24.5x P/E on FY23E EPS of | 815 with corresponding Sensex target at 66600.

Midcaps, small caps gave stellar returns in CY21. This is expected to continue in CY22E driven by inherent business moats as the earnings CAGR for midcap, small cap in FY21-23E is expected at ~39%, 28%, respectively. Going forward, innovative themes present in the midcap & small cap space (like speciality steel chemicals, home textiles, CRAMS, etc), superior earning potential and reasonable valuations (trades at <20x PE on FY23E, ~0.5x PEG) make us believe that more upsides are in store for investors.

Stock Picks for 2022

1. Bharti Airtel

2. The Phoenix Mills

3. Minda Corp

4. Radico Khaitan

5. eClerx Services

6. Tech Mahindra

7. Orient Cement

8. Dwarikesh Sugar

9. NRB Bearings

10. Aster DM Healthcare

2021 has been one of the most active years for IPO with the digital companies making their debut and lapping up a vast proportion of the new money. Also, the markets have been in an uptrend barring last couple of months. With inflation moving up and the Fed showing its intentions to tighten liquidity, markets in last couple of months have been a bit volatile, with the FIIs being seller almost on a daily basis.

Hence, 2022 is starting with an expectation of tightening liquidity, increasing interest rates and uncertainty around Covid still remaining. However, on the brighter side, economy is showing strength and the corporate earning cycle is on an uptrend. With two opposing themes playing around, I would expect 2022 to be much more range bound for the broader markets, however some of the sectors may do really well.

a) Financials

b) Pharma

c) Real estate

In the wake of impending assembly elections in five states early next year, the government announced that it approved the issuance of the 19th tranche of electoral bonds, which will be open for sale from January 1 to January 10.

The State of India has been authorised by the government to issue and encash electoral bonds through its 29 authorized branches with effect from January 1 to January 10, 2022, as per the finance ministry statement.

14 stocks to buy as recommended by Angel One

PB Fintech board has approved further investment of an amount not exceeding ₹700 crore in one or more tranches in Policybazaar Insurance Brokers Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company during the financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23, the company said today. 

Starting 1 January 2022, bank customers will have to pay more for their ATM transactions once the free monthly limit gets exhausted. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had announced that the cash withdrawal charges on ATMs will be hiked from 1 January 2022. Lenders like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank have updated their website regarding the increased charges for cash and non-cash ATM transactions beyond the free monthly permissible limit for the users.

Indiabulls Real Estate shares are one of the three new companies in which Rakesh Jhunjhunwala bought fresh stake in July to September 2021 quarter. However, the real estate stock has been sideways for the last 3 months as it has risen from ₹149.95 (close price on NSE on 30th September 2021) to 158 per share levels today (at 9:24 AM). However, after the fresh breakout in Nifty Realty Index, stock market experts are highly bullish on this low priced real estate Rakesh Jhunjhunwala stock. 

Shriram General Insurance, the non-life private insurance unit of Shriram Group, has launched a separate vertical to focus on rural insurance. The company will recruit 1,500 employees and the insurance products will be available through 25,000 points-of-sale (PoS) as part of a three-year plan for rural expansion till FY25.

Zensar Technologies shares are in strong uptrend on Major time frame. After making a life high in September 2021, it started correcting and halted near 380 levels which also coincide with strong demand zone on weekly chart, highlighted HDFC Securities.

Sharing the IT stock as its top e-margin positional pick based on technical trends, the brokerage and research firm said that Zensar Tech shares have also taken support of 61.8% Fibonacci level drawn by connecting low(254) and high (587).

The rupee appreciated by 12 paise to 74.30 against the US dollar in opening trade on Friday, tracking gains in domestic equity markets.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened strong at 74.35 against the American dollar, then inched higher to 74.30, registering a rise of 12 paise from the last close.

In the previous session, the rupee surged 29 paise to close at a more than one-month high of 74.42 against the US dollar.

Calm end to turbulent series, large whipsaws seen

Post heavy selloff in first half of the series sharp comeback from lows seen on Nifty from 16400 to back above 17,200 levels, Nifty/BankNifty finished series with losses of 1.9/6.2% each. Highlights for the Dec series were a) FII’s continue to dump heavy in cash markets b) BankNifty down ~20% from 3months highs while Nifty IT at life high levels c) India VIX ended near 16 mark as traders awaits earnings for next directional cues d) BankNifty down more than 5% on back to back series to remain volatile.

Rollovers for Nifty/Bank‐Nifty stood at 78% (1.04cr shrs)/84% (24lakh shrs) vs 83% (1.09cr shrs)/84% (23.7lakh shrs) previous month, roll cost stood near 50 points for Nifty, Market wide rolls stood at 91%vs 94% previous month. 

FII’s derivative stats indicates long short index futures ratio at 1.94x for Jan series vs 3 months avg. of 1.58x levels, while Index futures long roll stood at 99% vs 3 months avg. of 96%. On options front, Max. call/put OI on Nifty for Jan monthly series at 17.5k calls (OI 1.77mn) and 17k put (OI ~2.9mn) shares. Outlook, options vol’s hinting for comparatively lower trading band +‐600 points from 17200 ATM mark, we expect 17600 to 16700 as trading range for Nifty, sector churning is key in range setup as IT stocks showing relative strength and Banking continue to drag.

IT major Tech Mahindra on Friday announced that the company approved the proposal to acquire 100% equity shares in Allyis India Private Limited and the company’s wholly owned subsidiary viz., Tech Mahindra (Americas) Inc approved the proposal to acquire 100% equity shares in Green Investments LLC.

Shares of CMS Info Systems made their stock market debut on the last day of the year that witnessed record number of companies raising funds through public issues. CMS Info Systems shares got listed at ₹220 per share on the NSE, nearly 2% premium as compared to its IPO issue price of ₹216 apiece. On the BSE, the stock started trading at ₹218.5 per share in Friday's session. 

"The markets have opened with a bang and are inching towards the hurdle of 17350. This is a crucial point and if we can close above this resistance level, the index will scale higher towards 17600. With a strong base at 16800, intraday dips can be utilized to accumulate long positions." 

The Reliance Industries Limited announced on Friday its solar unit, Reliance New Energy Solar Limited (RNESL), will buy sodium ion battery technology provider Faradion Ltd for 100 million pounds including debt. 

The 46th meeting of the GST Council will be held in New Delhi today at 11 am in Vigyan Bhawan and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair the meet. This meeting holds significance as it is taking place ahead of the Union Budget which is presented on the first day of February by the Finance Minister in Parliament.

4 stocks to buy or sell today — 31st December

Shares of CMS Info Systems are going to make its debut at Indian stock market today. As per the information available on BSE website, CMS Info Systems IPO listing date is 31st December 2021 and the equity shares of CMS Info Systems Limited shall be listed and admitted to dealings on NSE and BSE in the list of 'B' Group of Securities in Special Pre-open Session. 

According to stock market experts, lack of interest shown by investors in regard to the public issue may reflect in its listing too. Expecting weak listing of the public issue they went on to add that CMS Info Systems shares may open in the range of ₹195 to ₹220 per share levels.

Cryptocurrency prices today gained with Bitcoin trading above $47,000 mark. The world's most popular and largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization surged over 1% to $47,217. Global crypto market capitalization also rose more than 1% to $2.34 trillion, as per CoinGecko. 

Ether, dogecoin, Shiba Inu also surge.

Oil prices fell 1% on Friday but were set to post their biggest annual gains in 12 years, spurred by the global economic recovery from the COVID-19 slump and producer restraint, even as infections surged to record highs around the world.

On the last day of 2021, Brent crude futures were on track to end the year up 53%, while U.S. crude futures were headed for a 57% gain, the strongest performance for the two benchmark contracts since 2009, when prices soared more than 70%.

Here is the list of the top 10 stocks, including SBI, IDFC First Bank, Dish TV, that are likely to be in focus today.

Asian stocks got a fillip Friday from a rally in a Hong Kong gauge of technology firms following a surge in U.S.-listed Chinese equities. U.S. futures fell after Wall Street dipped from a record in thin year-end trading.

The Hang Seng Tech Index rose about 4% and China climbed. Those moves came in the wake of the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index’s biggest one-day jump since 2008 on Thursday, though it’s still down more than 40% for 2021.

The latest data showed China’s manufacturing sector continued to expand in December, providing some relief to Beijing as the world’s second-largest economy continues to struggle with a property market slump.