IT stocks, HDFC Bank, RIL help Sensex settle 329 points higher
Rally in information technology (IT) stocks, HDFC Bank, and Reliance Industries (RIL) helped the benchmark index, S&P BSE Sensex, settle with 329 points or 0.94 per cent gains at 35,171 levels on Friday.
NSE’s Nifty rallied 94 points or 0.91 per cent to end at 10,383. Volatility index, India VIX, dropped over 4 per cent to 28.50 levels.
IT stocks advanced in the trade after Accenture posted a better than expected quarterly numbers. The S&P BSE Information Technology index jumped over 5 per cent to end at 15,125 levels. Among individual stocks, Infosys gained 7 per cent, TCS rose 5 per cent while Wipro ended over 3 per cent higher. READ MORE
On a weekly basis, Sensex gained 1.26 per cent while Nifty added 1.35 per cent.
The broader indices underperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE MidCap index ended 0.27 per cent higher at 13,258.44 levels while the S&P BSE SmallCap rose 0.19 per cent to 12,630 points.
Shares of Future Group companies extended their northward movement with Future Consumer and Future Market Networks zooming over 100 per cent, while flagship Future Retail surging 94 per cent in the past one month on reports Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries will buy a stake in some units of Future Group. Future Market Networks has soared 104 per cent, while Future Enterprises surged 88 per cent in the past one month.
Shares of Aarti Drugs rallied 10 per cent on Friday to a new all-time high of Rs 1,299.50 on the BSE on the expectation of good growth from its API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) and formulation business. In the past three months, the stock has zoomed 166 per cent, as compared to 17 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. At 11:24 am, it was up 7 per cent at Rs 1,262, against a 0.6 per cent gain in the benchmark index.
Shares of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) were locked in the upper circuit band of 10 per cent, at Rs 13.18 — also its 52-week high — for the second straight day on the BSE on Friday after the bank reported a net profit of Rs 144 crore for the quarter ended March 2020 (Q4FY20) on the back of lower provisioning for bad loans. The state-owned bank had posted a net loss of Rs 1,985 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Shares of state-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) declined 5.6 per cent, in an otherwise firm market, to Rs 1,341 on the BSE on Friday after the Indian Railways cancelled all regular trains, barring the special Rajdhani and mail express trains announced by the Indian Railways during the Covid-19 induced lockdown, till August 12.
Shares of Ashok Leyland rose as high as 3.64 per cent to Rs 55.50 on the BSE on Friday despite the company posting a 92.31 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 57.78 crore in the fourth quarter of FY20 (Q4FY20). The Hinduja Group flagship firm’s revenue from operations during the quarter under review stood at Rs 5,088.04 crore as against Rs 9,874.04 crore in the year-ago period.
GAIL (India)’s better-than-expected performance in the March quarter (Q4) of 2019-20 (FY20) impressed the Street and pushed up the firm’s stock by over 2 per cent on Thursday when leading indices closed marginally lower. This was driven by good operating performance across segments.
Shares of PNC Infratech rallied as much as 16.5 per cent to Rs 155 apiece on the BSE on Friday after the company announced it has received Letter of Award (LOA) from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for HAM Project of Rs 1,412 crore. At 09:27 am, the stock was trading around 7.5 per cent higher at Rs 143 on the BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was ruling 0.78 per cent higher at 35,115.30 levels.
Here are some picks from the week gone by.
