Sensex ends higher; ICICI Bank, Infosys among top gainers
BSE Sensex gained 170.42 points or 0.42% to close at 40,286.48, while the Nifty 50 index climbed up 31.65 points or 0.27% ending at 11,872.10 in today’s tradeAmong stocks, ICICI Bank Ltd, Bajaj Finance Ltd, HDFC twins—HDFC Bank Ltd and HDFC Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd and Yes Bank were the biggest gainers
MUMBAI : Indian equity market ended higher on Thursday led by gains in financial services and IT sectors. However, positive investor sentiment was marred by headline inflation rate based on consumer price index (CPI) that breached Reserve Bank of India’s medium-term target of 4% for the first time since July 2018.
The government released CPI inflation data after market hours on Wednesday. Retail Inflation jumped to 4.62% in October from 3.99% in September due to a surge in food inflation.
Contrary to the rise in CPI inflation, wholesale prices based inflation, or WPI, eased further to 0.16% in October from 0.33% in September due to subdued prices of non-food articles and fall in prices of manufactured items, according to the government data released today.
BSE Sensex gained 170.42 points or 0.42% to close at 40,286.48, while the Nifty 50 index climbed up 31.65 points or 0.27% ending at 11,872.10 in today’s trade.
Asian markets were trading mixed. Japan's Nikkei225 lost 0.76% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.93%, whereas China's Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.16% and Korea's Kospi index rose 0.79%.
Among stocks, ICICI Bank Ltd, Bajaj Finance Ltd, HDFC twins—HDFC Bank Ltd and HDFC Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd and Yes Bank were the biggest gainers in the financial services sector. In the tech sector, Infosys Ltd, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Tech Mahindra Ltd gained the most.
Vodafone Idea fell 20.27% to close at ₹2.95 after news reports suggested that the department of telecommunications (DoT) has asked operators to conduct a self-assessment of pending dues after last month’s Supreme Court verdict that upheld the government’s definition of adjusted gross revenue.
SpiceJet Ltd tumbled 5.94% and closed at ₹106.95 after the company reported a consolidated net loss of ₹461.2 crore for the quarter-ended September due to rise in total expenditure. The company had posted a loss of ₹382.7 crore a year ago. Total expenditure jumped 55% year-on-year to ₹3,537.5 crore in the September quarter compared with ₹2,286.7 crore a year ago.
Muthoot Finance Ltd soared 9.54% to close at ₹707.5 after the company reported a rise of 41% year-on-year growth in profit before tax at ₹1,047 crore for the September quarter on the back of strong operational income. The stock was the biggest gainer in the BSE's 'A' group.
Shares of Aurobindo Pharma Ltd hit a five-year low today after the drug maker said it received 14 observations from the US Food and Drug Administration for its manufacturing facility at Hyderabad—a move that may disrupt supplies and delay future approvals. The stock ended down 8.73% at ₹395.55.
Among sectoral Indices, BSE IT was the biggest gainer with a rise of 1.07% followed by BSE Consumer Durables 0.87% and BSE Finance 0.80%. However, BSE Telecom lost the most at 2.76%, BSE Metal was down 1.98% and BSE Capital Goods slipped 0.84%.
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