Sensex ends 214 points higher amid broad-based buying; Asian Paints gains 4%

The Indian markets ended over half a per cent higher on Friday, lifted by financial stocks, while volatility index, India VIX, dipped 4 per cent to below 20 levels.

The S&P BSE Sensex gained 214 points, or 0.56 per cent, to 38,435 levels, and the Nifty50 index ended above the 11,350-mark at 11,372, up 59 points or 0.53 per cent. NTPC (up over 4.5 per cent), Asian Paints (up over 4 per cent) and Power Grid (up over 4 per cent) were the top Sensex gainers. Asian Paints hit a record high of Rs 1,971 during the day. The stock settled at Rs 1,958.35 on the BSE.

On a weekly basis, Sensex gained 1.47 per cent while Nifty added 1.72 per cent.

On the flip side, ONGC (down over 1 per cent), Bharti Airtel (down 1 per cent), and Tata Steel (down nearly 1 per cent) were the biggest losers on the index.

Among other individual stocks, GMM Pfaudler surged over 8 per cent in early deals after it said it has acquired a 54 per cent stake in its parent firm Pfaudler Group for a consideration of around $27.4 million.

The trend among Nifty sectoral indices was positive, led by Nifty PSU Bank index, up 1.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, the broader markets kept up their outperformance. The S&P BSE MidCap index ended at 14,954, up 0.57 per cent while the S&P BSE SmallCap index ended at 14,625.19, up nearly 1.5 per cent.

Shares of Va Tech Wabag rallied 20% as the Co’s board is to consider fundraising next week. For the quarter ended March 2020, Va Tech Wabag reported profit before tax (PBT) of Rs 45.23 crore, up 186 per cent against Rs 15.82 crore in the March 2019 quarter. Revenue from operations stood at Rs 785.06 crore, up 15.5 per cent against Rs 679.25 crore in the year-ago period. The net profit of the company came in at Rs 30.47 crore, down 25.2 per cent against Rs 40.77 crore in June 2019 quarter.

Shares of V-Mart Retail advanced over 16 per cent to Rs 2,250 on the BSE on Friday as compared to around 1 per cent rise in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. At 12:16 PM, the stock was trading nearly 13 per cent higher at Rs 2,178. With today’s rally, the stock has gained 25.8 per cent in three sessions. For the quarter ended June 2020, V-Mart reported a loss of Rs 33.64 crore as against a net profit of Rs 17.60 crore during the previous quarter ended June 2019. Sales declined 82.77 per cent to Rs 78.06 crore during the period as against Rs 453.05 crore in the year-ago period.

Shares of Strides Pharma Science rose 8.16 per cent to Rs 614.65.on the BSE on Friday after the company received the approval of US health regulator (US FDA) for Ursodiol Tablets used for the treatment of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). PBC is a progressive disease of the liver caused by a buildup of bile within the liver that results in damage to the small bile ducts that drain bile from the liver.

Shares of Max Healthcare Institute listed at the bourses at Rs 112 per share – at Rs 112.3 on the BSE and Rs 111.7 on the NSE – on Friday. The shares were locked in the 5 per cent upper circuit band with a combined 0.82 million shares changing hands within the initial minutes of trade. In June, Max India informed the exchanges that the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had approved the composite scheme of merger and demerger which involved a merger of the healthcare assets of Max India into Max Healthcare and demerger of the residual businesses of Max India into Advaita, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Max India.

Shares of Divi’s Laboratories and SBI Life Insurance rallied on Friday, a day after the NSE Indices, a subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) announced that both the stocks will enter the benchmark index Nifty50 from September 25, 2020. The stock of Divi’s Laboratories hit an all-time high of Rs 3,331 in the early trade, up nearly 4.5 per cent against Thursday’s close of Rs 3,189.30 with the market capitalisation (m-cap) nearing Rs 90,000 crore.

Shares of GMM Pfaudler rose as much as 8.18 per cent to Rs 6,360 on the BSE on Friday after the process equipment manufacturer acquired a 54 per cent stake in its parent firm Pfaudler Group for a consideration of around $27.4 million. GMM, which supplies process equipment to pharmaceutical and chemical industries, has signed definitive agreements to acquire a majority stake in Pfaudler Group from the private equity firm Deutsche Beteiligungs AG Fund VI (DBAG) for the stake.

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