Sensex Zooms 700 Pts, Nifty Tops 17250; Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra Top Gainers

Riding on positive global momentum, Indian benchmark indices advanced over 1% in early trade.. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint
Riding on positive global momentum, Indian benchmark indices advanced over 1% in early trade.. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

Summary

  • Indian share markets trade firm with the Sensex up by 628 points, while the Nifty is trading higher by 185 points.

Asian share markets are trading in positive territory as investors became cautiously optimistic the new Omicron variant might not cause a widespread global economic disruption to worsen the coronavirus pandemic.

The Nikkei advanced 0.7% while the Shanghai Composite added 0.2%. The Hang Seng, on the other hand, lost 1.3%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices closed higher on Monday, regaining some of the ground they lost in Friday's sell-off, as investors were hopeful that the Omicron coronavirus variant would not lead to lockdowns after reassurance from US President Joe Biden.

The Dow Jones gained 0.7% while the Nasdaq Composite zoomed 1.9%.

Back home, Indian share markets have opened on a strong note. Riding on positive global momentum, benchmark indices advanced over 1% in early trade.

Go Fashion made its Dalal Street debut today. The company sold its shares in the range of ₹655-690 between 17-22 November to raise ₹10.1 bn via IPO.

Before listing, it was commanding a premium of ₹490 per share, a premium of 70% in the grey market.

Meanwhile, the ₹72.5 bn IPO by Star Health opened for subscription today.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 628 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 185 points.

Bajaj Finserv and Tech Mahindra are among the top gainers today.

Dr Reddy’s Lab, on the other hand, is among the top losers today.

Both, the BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index are trading higher by 1.9%.

All sectoral indices are trading in green with stocks in the realty sector and IT sector witnessing most of the buying interest.

Shares of Sheela Foam and Raymond hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 74.94 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.1% at ₹47,587 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading up by 0.2% at ₹61,784 per kg.

Crude oil prices climbed today extending a rebound from last week's plunge on growing expectations major producers would pause plans to add crude supply in January amid uncertainty over the severity of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

In news from the mining sector, Coal India share price is in focus today.

State-owned Coal India on Monday announced that its board has approved interim dividend of ₹9 per share. 

The company stated that it has fixed 7 December as the record date for the purpose of payment of interim dividend on equity shares for the financial year 2022. The date of payment of dividend is on and from 21 December 2021.

Just recently, it was reported that the dispatch of coal to the power sector for Coal India rose 22.7% to 291.72 m tonne (MT) in the first seven months of the ongoing fiscal year. Coal India had dispatched 237.75 MT of coal to the power sector in April-October period of 2020-21.

The supply of coal to the power sector during the last month also increased 21.7% to 47.67 MT, over 39.17 MT in the year-ago period.

Coal India accounts for over 80% of the domestic coal output.

The company, which is eyeing one bn tonne of fuel output by 2023-24, will pump over ₹1.22 lakh crore in projects related to coal evacuation, exploration and clean coal technologies by 2023-24.

This investment of ₹1.22 lakh crore will be utilised to fund a total of 500 projects.

Moving on to news from the defence sector, state-run Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) will manufacture four light utility helicopters (LUHs) under limited series production by 2022-23, according to the government.

Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt, replying to a question in Rajya Sabha on Monday, also said that another eight LUHs will be built by 2023-24.

This would be followed by the manufacture of series production (SP) of the helicopters by HAL.

Note that the defence ministry had approved the procurement of 12 LUH from the HAL for around ₹15 bn earlier this month.

The LUH is designed and developed as a replacement for ageing fleets of Cheetah and Chetak helicopters being operated by the armed forces.

Indigenously-developed LUH is a new generation helicopter in the 3-tonne category that has state-of-the-art technology features like a glass cockpit with multi-function displays (MFD) and is powered by a single turboshaft engine.

Hindustan Aeronautics share price is currently trading up by 0.7%.

Speaking of the defence sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the top 5 military spending countries in the world as of 2019:

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According to a SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) report, India was the third largest military spending country in the world in 2019.

Here's what we wrote about it in one of the editions of Profit Hunter:

If you look at the chart closely, you will realise it is likely to remain among the top spenders in the coming years.

It's because of the second largest spender shown in the chart, China.

With rising tensions between the two countries, the incentive is strong for India to keep up with China.

It all makes sense for the government to focus on this sector in a big way in the near future.

The government's 'Atmanirbhar' push will get a massive boost through local defence manufacturing. This will create profitable opportunities in defence stocks for astute investors.

This article is syndicated from Equitymaster.com

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