Sensex hits triple century after 7-day losses; midcaps outshine, all sectoral indices up
Bulls were back in action on Thursday as the market snapped a seven-day losing streak with benchmark indices clocking 1 percent gain and all sectoral indices ending in the green. Positive Asian cues and Brent crude futures trading at one-month low around USD 65 a barrel against USD 71 a barrel in January 2018 also boosted market sentiment.
Benchmark indices started the day with mild gains and gained more traction as the day progressed. The 30-share BSE Sensex surged more than 500 points intraday on bargain hunting but it came off day’s high a bit in late trade.
The index ended up 330.45 points or 0.97 percent at 34,413.16 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rallied 100.20 points or 0.96 percent to 10,576.90.
Banking & financials, technology stocks and Reliance Industries pushed the market higher while cement and pharma stocks are strong in trade.
The broader markets outperformed benchmarks, with the Nifty Midcap rising 1.8 percent and BSE Smallcap index gaining 2.25 percent on strong breadth. More than three shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.
Strong stock specific moves post earnings, and short covering as well as bargain hunting propelled the market higher today, experts said.
“Earnings will continue to trigger movement on stock specific front. We advise focusing on position management more than anything else and prefer hedged trades,” Jayant Manglik, President, Religare Broking, said.
All sectoral indices closed in the green. Nifty Bank, Auto, IT, Metal, Pharma and Realty indices rallied 1-4 percent.
Cipla was the biggest gainer among Nifty 50 stocks, surging 7.6 percent as global brokerage houses remained positive on the stock post Q3 earnings and management commentary.
Sun Pharma rallied 6 percent despite disappointing earnings from Taro Pharmaceuticals. Dr Reddy’s Labs rose 3 percent despite there could be a delay in launch of generic Suboxone film after US drug maker Indivior filed patent lawsuits against five generic filers including the company.
State Bank of India gained 3 percent and Bank of Baroda was up 1.6 percent ahead of Q3 earnings tomorrow.
Maruti Suzuki climbed over a percent. CLSA feels Maruti has potential to further strengthen India franchise with unveiling new compact SUV. Hence, it has retained Buy call on the stock with target at Rs 11,300 per share. The country’s largest carmaker today launched the all-new version of its popular hatchback Swift.
Cement stocks strengthened after strong earnings from ACC (up 6 percent) and Heidelberg Cement (up 7 percent). Ambuja Cements gained 5.5 percent and UltraTech Cement rose 2 percent.
ACC’s December quarter earnings beat analyst estimates, with profit doubling to Rs 206 crore YoY on strong EBITDA, sales while Heidelberg Cement turned profitable in Q3 with net at Rs 31.8 crore against loss of Rs 3.6 crore in year-ago.
IOC plunged 4.7 percent as the stock traded ex-dividend.
Infosys, HDFC, Reliance Industries and L&T among others gained 1-2 percent whereas Aurobindo Pharma, Power Grid and NTPC lost 1-2 percent.
Bharat Forge, Muthoot Finance, Page Industries, Hikal, Ferro Alloys, Welspun Corp, Cadila Healthcare and West Coast Paper gained 2-8 percent after strong set of earnings in Q3.
On the global front, Most Asian markets ended higher, with the Japan’s Nikkei rising 1.1 percent whereas China’s Shanghai Composite fell 1.4 percent. European stocks – France CAC, Germany DAX and Britain FTSE were down around a percent (ahead of Bank of England decision) at the time of writing this article.
