PremiumIndian stocks rose as normal trading resumed on the National Stock Exchange, a day after the bourse faced its longest-ever outage and had to extend trading hours to help investors square off positions.
Benchmark equity indices ended higher for a third straight session on Thursday with metals and PSU banks accounting for most of the gains, amid strong cues from global peers.
The Sensex settled at 51,039.31, while Nifty closed at 15,097.35. Metal stocks lead the markets.
ONGC, NTPC and RIL were among the top performers on the Sensex, while, L&T, Nestle and ICICI Bank were in red. Thirteen companies in the 30-share gauge closed in the red.
ICICI Bank has allotted 768,702 equity shares of face value of ₹2 each under the Employee Stock Option Scheme (ESOS).
HDFC Ltd unit HDFC Property Ventures Ltd has sold 50,000 equity shares of ₹10 each, representing 50% of the issued and paid-up share capital of Magnum Foundations Pvt. Ltd.
PNB Housing Finance Ltd allotted 12,500 equity shares worth ₹10 each bearing distinctive numbers from 16,81,92,409 to 16,82,04,908 under its ESOP or employee stock option programme scheme.
Gold eased on Thursday as US Treasury yields hovered near a one-year peak, tarnishing bullion's appeal, although a softer dollar and the US Federal Reserve's commitment to an accommodative policy limited its fall.
Spot gold fell 0.6% to $1,792.81 per ounce by 0757 GMT. U.S. gold futures eased 0.4% to $1,791.60.
Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd's unit Mahindra Holdings Ltd completed the sale of its entire stake aggregating in Mahindra First Choice Services Ltd (MFCS) and Auto Digitech Pvt. Ltd (ADPL) for ₹21.5 crore and ₹13.5 crore, respectively, to TVS Automobile Solutions Pvt Ltd.
Consequently, MFCS and ADPL have ceased to be subsidiaries of MHL and of the Company with effect from 25th February, 2021.
Moody's on Thursday upped India's growth projection for the next financial year beginning April 1, to 13.7%, from 10.8% estimated earlier, on the back of normalisation of activity and growing confidence in the market with the rollout of Covid-19 vaccine.
Jubilant Industries Ltd's restructuring committee is evaluating the possibility of a merger/restructuring involving the company, certain promoters of the company and Jubilant Agri and Consumer Products Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. The potential rejig is aimed at enabling better management focus and control of the business, reduce the number of operating
companies, achieve a reduction in overheads, administrative, managerial, and other expenditures, and to streamline and realign the shareholding of the company. The company's share is trading at ₹220.05, up 9.20 points or 4.36% a piece.
Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi said, "SIP inflows into equities have been constantly falling in recent months. In the last three months mutual funds have seen some outflows," he stated. "Companies in India raised ₹6.5 lakh crore via bond market this year. Equity fund raising has also picked up now," he added.
On the central bank’s digital currency, Das said a lot of work is going on internally in the RBI and some broad guidelines and approach papers will be released on it soon. The governor said RBI has certain concerns on cryptocurrencies and it has already been communicated to the government. Bitcoin was valued at $50,510.20 as of 1:28 pm.
Lupin's allotment committee of directors at allotted 40,587 fully paid-up equity shares of ₹2 each. These shares have been allotted upon exercising of options granted to the employees under stock option plans of the company. As a result, the issued and paid-up capital of the Company has been increased to 90,72,82,820 shares, consisting 45,36,41,410 equity shares worth ₹2 each. The company's stock was trading up 2.27% at ₹1,030 a piece.
Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) acquired 29,34,84,370 equity shares in L&T Finance by way of a rights issue, it said in a regulatory filing. It's share slipped 0.58% to ₹ 1,516.00 a piece.
L&T Technology Services (LTTS) has been selected by Airbus to
provide technology and digital engineering solutions for Airbus’ Skywise platform as part of the ‘Skywise Partner Programme’.
LTTS will support the airlines in the development of complex workflows, creation of new interfaces between their existing information systems and Skywise and also provide assistance in their digital transformation with Skywise. L&T Technoogy Services was trading at 2,552.85, up
57.80 points or 2.23% on the NSE at 12:40 pm.
Max Financial hits 52-week high on regulatory approval for deal with Axis Bank
Shares of Max Financial Services hit a 52-week high of ₹938.65 apiece on Thursday on the National Stock Exchange, rising 6.3% from previous close, following the insurance regulator's approval for its deal with Axis Bank.
Oil prices rose for a fourth straight session on Thursday to the highest levels in more than 13 months, underpinned by monetary easing policies and lower crude production in the US.
Brent crude futures for April gained 19 cents, 0.3%, to $67.23 a barrel by 0400 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for April was at $63.30 a barrel, up 8 cents, 0.1%. Both contracts touched their highest since January 2020 earlier in the session with Brent at $67.44 and WTI at $63.67. An assurance from the U.S. Federal Reserve that interest rates would stay low for a while boosted investors' risk appetite and global financial markets.
Ashok Leyland to buy Nissan's stake in Hinduja Tech for ₹70.20 cr
Hinduja Group flagship firm Ashok Leyland on Thursday said it has entered an agreement with Nissan International Holding BV to acquire 38% stake in Hinduja Tech for ₹70.20 crore. Hinduja Tech will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the company on completion of the acquisition, Ashok Leyland said in a regulatory filing.
Just Dial was trading at ₹711.40 a piece, up 11.23% at 11.15 am. The company launched its B2B portal, Jd Mart, across various platforms on Thursday.
Axis Bank gained 4.16% to trade at ₹779.90 a piece. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) on Wednesday approved the lender's acquisition of 12.002% of the equity share capital of Max Life, by way of transfer of equity shares of Max Life from Max Financial to the Axis Entities.
The rupee slipped by 6 paise to 72.41 against the US dollar in opening trade on Thursday tracking weakness in Asian peers. At the interbank forex market, the domestic unit opened at 72.35 against the US dollar, then lost further ground and touched 72.41, registering a fall of 6 paise over its previous close.
On Wednesday, the rupee had settled at 72.35 against the American currency.
The healthcare and wellness company's initial public offer was subscribed 39.93 times on the last day of subscription on Wednesday.
HDFC Bank Ltd crossed ₹9 trillion in market capitalisation for the first time on Thursday becoming India's third firm and first lender to achieve this milestone.
Shares of HDFC Bank hit a record high of ₹1,635 in the early trade on BSE with market cap of ₹9.01 trillion. So far this year, HDFC Bank has risen rose 13.5%. Earlier, Reliance Industries and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd have achieved this landmark. Currently, RIL is India's most valued firm with an mcap of ₹13.25 followed by TCS with an mcap of ₹11.17 trillion.
Bharti Airtel said it has raised !.25 billion by issuing dollar bonds in two tranches of $750 million and $500 million. The latter was issued by its wholly owned Mauritius-based unit Network i2i Ltd.
Indian benchmark equity indices opened higher on Thursday led by gains in AXIS Bank, ONGC and Maruti Suzuki. Sensex opened at 51,323.53, up 541.84 points or 1.07%, while Nifty climbed 97.85 points or 0.65% to 15,079.85.
Axis Bank, rising 2.24%, was the top Sensex gainer followed by ONGC, Maruti and SBI. Meanwhile, UltraTech and Dr Reddy were among the laggards. Of 30 Sensex shares, 28 opened in the green.
NSE has multiple telecom links with two service providers to ensure redundancy and we received communication of instability of all their links from both the service providers. While there was no impact to the trading system, this instability resulted in an impact to the online risk management system. Market functioning could not continue normally and hence had to be shut down. Trading resumed at 3:45.
A detailed root cause analysis is awaited, NSE said adding that it is in touch with Sebi about the developments.
Indian stocks traded higher on Thursday in the pre-opening session. At 9:05am Sensex was at 51,211.02, up 429.33 points or 0.85%, while Nifty was at 14,982.00 up 274.20 or 1.86%.
The markets gained nearly 2% in an extended trading session on Wednesday. Markets were hit by a technical outage that disrupted trading on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for nearly four hours.
On Wednesday, in extended trade till 5pm, the BSE Sensex ended at 50,781.69, up 1,030.28 points or 2.07%, while the 50-share index Nifty ended at 14,982, up 274.20 points or 1.86%.
The lifting of a government business embargo to private lenders drove a rally led by Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and the HDFC twins. Meanwhile, TCS, Power GRID and Dr Reddy's ended in the red with four others.
Asian markets firmed up on Thursday after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that interest rates would stay low, calming market worries that higher inflation might prompt the central bank to tighten the monetary policy.
Japan's Nikkei 225 added 1.37%.
South Korea's KOSPI added 2%.
Singapore's SGX Nifty climbed 0.6%.
Australia's ASX200 rose 1%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.6%.
Wall Street ends higher
Shares on Wall Street closed higher after a selloff in technology-related stocks eased. Key indices rose after Fed Chair Jerome powell assured markets that it may take more than three years to reach the central bank's inflation goals.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 424.51 points, or 1.35%, to 31,961.86, the S&P 500 gained 44.06 points, or 1.14%, to 3,925.43 and the Nasdaq Composite added 132.77 points, or 0.99%, to 13,597.97.
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