Sensex ends volatile trade 12 points up; RIL jumps 6% this week, ITC down 7%
Domestic markets ended a tumultuous week on a flat note amid subdued trade in Asia and bleak UK economic data. The Office for National Statistics said on Friday that the UK’s gross domestic product shrank 9.9 per cent in 2020, its biggest decline on record.
Indices turned sharply lower in the fag-end of the session but recovered marginally to end mildly higher. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 543 points from the day’s high to hit an intra-day low of 51,261. At close, the index was at 51,544 levels, up 13 points or 0.02 per cent. The NSE’s Nifty50, meanwhile, ended at 15,163 level, down 10 points or 0.07 per cent.
ICICI Bank, Infosys, HDFC, and Axis Bank were the top gainers on the Sensex index while Adani Ports, ICICI Bank, Infosys, and Wipro were the top performing stocks on the Nifty. ITC, Sun Pharma, ONGC, and Bharti Airtel were the top drags on both the indices.
Broader markets, too, ended mixed today. The S&P BSE MidCap index was up 0.06 per cent at close while the S&P BSE SmallCap index settled 0.02 per cent lower.
On the sectoral front, the Nifty Metal index skid 1.7 per cent, followed by the Nifty FMCG index declined 1.5 per cent. At the other end of the spectrum, Nifty Private Bank and the Nifty Bank indices gained 1 per cent each.
Housing financier HDFC on Friday entered the elite club of Rs 5-trillion market-capitalisation mark, after its shares surged to touch a record high of Rs 2,808 apiece on the BSE. The stock settled 1 per cent higher at Rs 2,790 apiece on the BSE with a m-cap of Rs 5.01 trillion. HDFC Ltd is the sixth Indian company to have achieved this milestone, after Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, and Infosys.
Moreover, Adani Enterprises today entered the list of the top-50 most valuable companies in India after the company’s stock price rallied 9 per cent to Rs 719, also its new high, on the BSE in intra-day trade. The stock settled at day’s higher.
Shares of SBI Cards and Payment Services, on Friday, hit a new high of Rs 1,048.65 after rising 2 per cent intra-day on the BSE, thus surpassing its previous high of Rs 1,040, recorded on January 22, 2021. Thus far in the calendar year 2021, SBI Cards has outperformed the market by surging 23 per cent, as compared to 8.5 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. A sharp rally in the share price has seen the market capitalisation (market-cap) of SBI Card inches towards Rs 1-trillion mark.
Greenply Industries zoomed 19% on strong operational performance in Q3. Consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margins rose by 119 basis points year on year (YoY) to 12.8 per cent, on sustained focus on reducing overheads and making operations more efficient. The company said the margin was expected to improve post Covid-19 from FY22 with increase in revenue and cost rationalization measures.
Shares of Motherson Sumi Systems hit 52-week high of Rs 194.55, ralling 9 per cent on the BSE in the intra-day trade on Friday, after the company reported highest-ever quarterly revenues of Rs 17,923 crore, up by 15 per cent over the previous year quarter, in Q3FY21.
Shares of Ashok Leyland on Friday tumbled 8 per cent after the company reported a net loss of Rs 19 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2020. The stock tanked 8 per cent to Rs 124.10 on BSE. On NSE, it plunged 6.77 per cent to Rs 125.90. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 28 crore in October-December quarter of 2019-20.
Shares of ITC were trading 3 per cent lower at Rs 226 on the BSE in Friday’s intra-day trade as investors booked profit in the counter following the firm’s December quarter numbers. The company, on Thursday, reported an 11.6 per cent drop year-on-year (YoY) in its consolidated profit to Rs 3,663 crore in the December quarter (Q3FY21). The profit was impacted by lower operating profit and higher tax provisioning. The board declared an interim dividend of Rs 5 per share.
Shares of aviation firms InterGlobe Aviation and SpiceJet took off at the bourses on Friday, cheering the government’s decision to increase the upper and lower cap on airfare by up to 30 per cent. In the intra-day trade, IndiGo shares jumped up to 4.7 per cent on the BSE to hit an intra-day high of Rs 1,704 apiece while those of SpiceJet soared 7 per cent to a high of Rs 94 per share.
Here are some picks from the week gone by.
