Sensex takes a breather, gains 1,628 points; Nifty ends at 8,745
After days of brutal sell-off, the domestic equity market witnessed a sharp rebound on Friday and ended with around 6 per cent gains as positive global cues and coordinated efforts by countries across the globe to fight coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic soothed investors’ nerves.
The S&P BSE Sensex rallied 1,628 points or 5.75 per cent to settle at 29,916. Of 30 constituents, 28 advanced and just 2 declined. Reliance Industries (RIL), HDFC and TCS contributed the most to the index’s gains. ONGC jumped over 18.5 per cent to Rs 72.45 apiece. It ended as the top gainer on the index. Other heavyweights such as RIL, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), and TCS gained in the range of 10-12 per cent.
On the downside, HDFC Bank slipped over 1 per cent to Rs 882 after global brokerage house Bernstein downgraded the stock to ‘underperform’ and sharply slashed the target price to Rs 750 from Rs 1,400 earlier.
On the NSE, headline index Nifty gained 482 points or 5.83 per cent to settle at 8,745 levels.
On a weekly basis, both Sensex and Nifty slipped over 12 per cent.
All the sectoral indices on the NSE ended in the green. Nifty FMCG advanced the most – up around 9 per cent to 26,073 levels while Nifty IT surged over 8.5 per cent to 12,306 points. Metal stocks, too, witnessed solid buying as the Nifty Metal index ended 7.7 per cent higher at 1,695 levels.
In the broader market, the Nifty Midcap 100 index jumped around 5 per cent to 12,642 levels while the Nifty SmallCap index gained over 2 per cent to 3,874 points.
Market breadth was in favour of buyers as out of 2,605 companies traded on the BSE, 1,447 advanced and 1,008 declined while 150 remained unchanged. Volatility index India VIX declined over 7 per cent to 66.92 levels.
Bharti Infratel zooms 23%, Escorts, Jubilant FoodWorks soar 21%
Piramal Enterprises hits 52-week low of Rs 663, down 15% on the BSE
Quess Corp, Future Retail, Shankara Building Products, DHFL, Vakrangee and Future Consumer locked in lower circuit in an otherwise firm market
Shares of information technology (IT) companies rallied by up to 14 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday after Accenture reported a better-than-consensus Q2 performance. Meanwhile, the Rupee hit a new low on Thursday, falling below 75 against the US dollar for the first time. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HCL Technologies, Wipro, MindTree, and NIIT Technologies gained in the range of 10 per cent to 14 per cent on the NSE as investors indulged in some value-buying as valuations turned attractive after the recent fall in stock prices.
TCS rallies 10% with market cap gain of Rs 63,321 crore
State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) surpassed IndusInd Bank in market capitalisation (market-cap) ranking, after the sharp correction in the private sector lender’s stock price. At 10:34 am, BoB was up 2 per cent at Rs 62.90 with market-cap of Rs 29,063 crore, becoming the eighth largest bank by market cap. In comparison, IndusInd Bank, down 5.7 per cent to Rs 419, had market-cap of Rs 29,024 crore, BSE data shows.
Shares of pharma and healthcare companies rallied in an otherwise volatile market on Friday. Ipca Laboratories jumped as much as 19 per cent to Rs 1,500 apiece on the BSE after news reports said the company’s Active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for Chloroquine has been approved by the USFDA. Chloroquine, which is being used to treat malaria, may help treat coronavirus, say some reports.
Shares of IDFC First Bank tanked 10 per cent and hit a new low of Rs 18.60 on the BSE on Friday after the bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO), V Vaidyanathan, sold 27.56 million shares for approximately Rs 58 crore to close ESOP loan availed by him. The bank said that Vaidyanathan intends to sell another about Rs 35 crore worth of stocks today (March 20, 2020) to entirely repay the residual ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) Loan taken for exercising his ESOP shares to release his pledged shares. He holds 42.35 million shares, representing 0.88 per cent stake, after yesterday’s sale.
Here are some picks from the week gone by.
