Sensex zooms 600 pts on IT rally; Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro top gainers

The Nikkei is up 1.2% while the Shanghai Composite is up 0.4%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices rebounded on Thursday as shares of megacap stocks like Tesla, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Netflix jumped after Federal Reserve policymakers indicated they will not desist in the fight to tame inflation.

The Dow Jones gained 1.3% while the Nasdaq zoomed 2.7%.

Back home, Indian share markets are trading on a positive note.

Benchmark indices staged a gap-up opening today following gains in SGX Nifty futures and tracking a rally in US markets overnight.

Market participants are trackingFII & DII activityclosely. FIIs turned sellers to the tune of ₹4.5 bn while DIIs remained net buyers to the tune of ₹1.3 bn.

HDIL, Vivimed Labs and Opto Circuits are eyed as these companies will announce their Q4 results later today.

Meanwhile, specialty chemical company Aether Industries made its debut at the bourses today. The company raised ₹8.1 bn via its IPO.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 580 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 144 points.

Infosys and Tech Mahindra are among thetop gainers today. UltraTech Cement, on the other hand, is among thetop losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is up 0.4%. The BSE Small Cap index is trading higher by 0.7%.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed with stocks in the IT sector, capital goods sector and energy sector witnessing most of the buying.

Power stocks, on the other hand, are trading in red.

Shares of Ratnamani Metals and Lemon Tree Hotels hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 77.50 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading at ₹51,255 per 10 grams. Meanwhile, silver prices are trading up by 0.6% at ₹62,682 per kg.

Crude oil prices are flat today, clinging to gains made in the previous session on doubts that producers belonging to OPEC+ can hike their crude output enough to make up for lost supply from Russia.

In news from the specialty chemical space, Fine Organic Industries is among the top buzzing stocks today.

Shares of Fine Organic Industries continued their uptrend and gained 2% today. However, gains were quickly erased as the session progressed as investors booked profits.

In the past four trading sessions, the stock of the specialty chemicals company has soared over 35% after the company reported strong Q4 results.

The company’s consolidated profit after tax (PAT) grew nearly four-fold to ₹1.2 bn.

The company's revenue grew 91% year on year (YoY) to ₹6.2 bn as against ₹3.2 bn in the year-ago quarter.

The company’s board also recommended a final dividend of ₹9 per equity share for the financial year ended 31 March 2022.

Fine Organic carries on business in India and abroad, as manufacturers, processors, suppliers, distributors, dealers, importers, exporters of wide range of oleochemical-based additives used in foods, plastics, cosmetics, coatings and other specialty application in various industries.

Moving on to news from the energy sector, 16 banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) have sold more than ₹80 bn of Suzlon Energy loans to the Rural Electrification Corp (REC) and the state-owned Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA).

This move is done to clean up their books, that has been a drag for nearly a decade and a half.

The loan sale was concluded even as the wind energy company was in the midst of its second bank-led restructuring initiated in 2020.

The REC and IREDA-led refinance would extend the tenure of Suzlon's loans and would also bear a lower interest rate than what it was paying banks.

Suzlon Energy share price is trading down by 4%.

Note that in the past decade, lenders have restructured Suzlon's debt twice. Currently, the market regulator is conducting a long-drawn forensic audit while lenders have agreed to bail the company for the third time.

High debt stocks like Suzlon are always considered risky while debt free companies in India are considered safe because these companies are insulated against interest rate changes.

Suzlon is one such popular stock which has turned into penny stock and never recovered. Have a look at the chart below:

From having a marketcap of ₹680.7 bn in January 2008, Suzlon's current marketcap stands at ₹77.2 bn.

Moving on to news from the infra space, Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) wants to start lending to other infrastructure companies including roads and ports with linkages to railway stations.

The company’s MD and chairman said that IRFC has to ensure that their basic strength as a nil non-performing asset (NPA) company is upheld.

At no point of time can we afford to compromise on the low cost and no-NPA features of IRFC.

Our objective clause in the Memorandum of Association clearly mentions that we can lend to any sector with backward and forward linkage with the railways. So, a port with a linkage to a railway head that directly feeds into the Indian Railways network can be given a loan by IRFC.

IRFC share price is currently trading up by 0.2%.

(This article is syndicated from Equitymaster.com)