Sensex, Nifty snap 2-day fall, end flat; strong earnings lift Midcap over 1%
The market snapped two-day losing streak, ending flat with a positive bias on Thursday; but the broader markets outperformed equity benchmarks, following strong earnings. Investors focussed on SBI earnings and the outcome of GST Council meeting due tomorrow.
ICICI Bank (up 1.9 percent) and Reliance Industries (1.4 percent) helped the Nifty recover from day’s low and defend 10,300 level. Index heavyweights ITC (down 2.02 percent) and HDFC (1.24 percent), however, capped gains.
The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 32.12 points to 33,250.93 after a 352-point swing intraday, and more than 500-point fall in previous two consecutive sessions. The 50-share NSE Nifty gained 5.80 points at 10,309 while the Nifty Midcap index rallied 1.2 percent.
“Domestic flows continue to be abundant; the results season is ending with a high, with recent results outperforming expectations. Overall we are believe volatility is due and would not recommend fresh buys at this juncture,” Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder and Head of Trading, Zerodha said.
Tata Motors was up half a percent after better-than-expected earnings on strong JLR operational performance. Profit increased three-fold and standalone business loss narrowed in Q2.
Aurobindo Pharma shares ended flat ahead of earnings later today and SBI gained 1.3 percent ahead of numbers tomorrow.
Indiabulls Housing Finance, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel and Dr Reddy’s Labs among others gained 1-3 percent while Bajaj Finance, Bharti Infratel, ONGC, Eicher Motors and Cipla fell over a percent.
Coffee Day Enterprises, Amara Raja Batteries, Page Industries, Bombay Dyeing, Meghmani Organics, Dr Lal PathLabs, ITD Cementation, JK Lakshmi Cement, Pidilite Industries and Petronet LNG rallied 3-16 percent post earnings.
Calcined pet coke and cement maker Rain Industries was locked at 10 percent upper circuit as Motilal Oswal upped target to Rs 492 per share post strong earnings.
GSFC, United Breweries and Ashok Leyland were down 3-6 percent post earnings.
Cadila healthcare was down 3.7 percent as Credit Suisse has downgraded the stock to neutral and slashed target price to Rs 465 per share on competition to ulcerative colitis drug Lialda. Teva Pharma received tentative approval from USFDA for the drug.
Jet Airways hit 52-week high intraday, rising 6 percent on under valuation compared to peers. InterGlobe Aviation was up nearly 2 percent.
Hindustan Unilever, Kajaria Ceramics, Somany Ceramics, Nitco Tiles, HSIL, Godrej Consumer Products, Bata, Havells and Crompton Greaves Consumer gained 1-6 percent ahead of the outcome of two-day GST Council meeting that started today.
Motilal Oswal feels the GST Council, in its 23rd meeting, is likely to make sweeping changes to the GST framework, with an aim to ease the compliance burden for small businesses and recalibrate the tax rates on many common-use goods that fall under the 28 percent slab.
The market breadth was positive as about 871 shares advanced against 656 declining shares on the BSE.
