Indices post biggest 1-day gain in 10 yrs, Sensex up 1,921 points
It was a historic day for the equity markets on Friday as the frontline indices rallied over 5 per cent after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced reduction in corporation tax. The FM announced that the effective corporate tax rate will be lowered to 25.75 per cent.
Benchmark indices – S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty50 — posted their biggest single-day gain in 10 years while the Nifty Bank and Nifty MidCap index posted the biggest-ever single-day gain. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed stocks saw an increase of nearly Rs 7 lakh crore.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex added 1,921 points or 5.32 per cent to settle at 38,014.62, with Hero MotoCorp (up 13 per cent) being the top gainer and Power Grid Corporation (down over 2 per cent) the biggest loser.
On NSE, the Nifty50 index ended at 11,274 levels, up 569 points or 5.32 per cent, with 44 out of 50 constituents advancing and 6 ending in the red.
Volatility index India VIX dropped over 1 per cent to settle at 15.34 levels.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index gained 835 points or over 6 per cent to end at 14,120 and the S&P BSE SmallCap Index settled at 13,204.25, up 501 points or nearly 4 per cent.
On the sectoral front, barring IT stocks, all the sectoral indices on the NSE ended in the green. The Nifty IT index settled 0.20 per cent lower at 15,491.05 levels.
The bond yields soared on tax cut announcements by the Union Finance Minister on concerns that fiscal deficit would not likely get contained at 3.3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), and may prompt the government to borrow extra in the later part of this fiscal.
The rupee, however, strengthened sharply following cues from the stock market.
The yields on the 10-year bond, rose to 6.82 per cent at 12:45 p.m., while the rupee was trading at 70.98 a dollar. The yields had closed at 6.64 per cent on Thursday, while the rupee had closed at 71.32 a dollar.
Shares of consumption related companies including Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Nestle India, Bata India, Avenue Supermarts (D-Mart), Asian Paints, Berger Paints, Colgate-Palmolive India and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare hit their respective all-time highs on Friday after the government announced a fiscal measures to revive the animal spirits in the Indian economy.
Shares of automobile and cement companies rallied the most, gaining up to 16 per cent on the BSE on Friday, after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a cut in the corporate taxes as part of its fiscal measure to boost the flagging economy. Eicher Motors and Maruti Suzuki India surged 16 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively in the intra-day trade today. Meanwhile, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Ashok Leyland, TVS Motor, Escorts, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto from the automobiles added between 5 per cent and 8 per cent.
Shares of Astral Poly Technik tanked around 17 per cent to Rs 960 apiece on the BSE — its biggest fall in the past four years — in the early morning deals on Friday after nearly 3 per cent equity of the company changed hands via block deals. At 09:15 am, around 3.86 million equity shares, representing 2.6 per cent of total equity of Astral Poly Technik, changed hands on the BSE, the exchange data showed.
Shares of Morepen Labs rallied 9% as the company approved the issue and allotment up to 3.7 crore warrants for an aggregate amount of up to Rs 74 crore, convertible into 3.7 crore equity shares to promoter group entity(ies) on a preferential basis.
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