Sensex, Nifty Close At Record Aided By Gains In Banking, Realty, Metal Stocks

India's stock benchmarks closed at record aided by gains in banking, realty, metal stocks aided the advance as the markets shrugged off taper concerns.

The Sensex rose 1.63%, the most single-day gain in eight weeks, to 59,885,36, a record close. The 30-stock index rose to a record 59,957.25 in intraday trade. The Nifty 50 advanced 1.57%, the most single-day gain in four months, to 17,822.95, a record close. The 50-stock index rose to a record 17,843.90 in intraday trade. Reliance Industries Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 2.4%. Bajaj Finserv Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 5.1%. Today, 38 of 50 shares rose, while 12 fell.

The broader indices almost mirrored its larger peers with the S&P BSE SmallCap and S&P BSE MidCap, rising 1%. All the 19 sectoral indices compiled by the BSE Ltd. advanced, with S&P BSE Realty index nearly 9% while S&P BSE Bankex added over 2%.

The market breadth was skewed in favour of bulls. About 1,968 stocks advanced, 1,271 declined and 164 remained unchanged.

India’s central bank bought bonds worth Rs 15,000 crore ($2b) as part of its government securities acquisition program and sold an equivalent amount of short-term notes as planned.

Source: RBI statement.

• The NSE Nifty 50 index hit a record high of 17,795.45 in intraday trade

• The 50-stock index had previously hit a record high 17,792.95 on September 17, Friday

Shares of HCL Technologies Ltd. rose nearly 1% to Rs 1,328 apiece after it deepened its strategic partnership with SAP.

HCL Technologies has selected ‘RISE with SAP’ offering to further modernize its digital landscape. RISE with SAP is a product that bundles existing SAP assets to provide customers with ‘business transformation-as-a-service’.

In an exchange filing, HCL Technologies said it will take the role of consumer and global strategic service partner for ‘RISE with SAP’ due to this partnership expansion. SAP and HCL Technologies have been working together for over two decades.

Of the 48 analysts tracking the company, 41 maintained ‘buy’, four maintained ‘hold’ and three maintained ‘sell’ recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied a downside of 7.1%.

Shares of Affle India Ltd. rose 4.17% to Rs 5,259 apiece after the company received U.S. Patent related to the technology of driving app installations and user interactions during podcasts.

In an exchange filing, the company said that the grant protected its AI-driven intelligence and automation for conversion-driven marketing across the customers’ digital journey.

This is the fourth U.S. patent granted to Affle. The patented technology went deep into gesture-based, voice-intelligence driven interactions within live streams like podcasts.

Of the seven analysts tracking the company, five maintained ‘buy’ and two maintained ‘hold’ recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 12.6%.

Shares of GR Infraprojects Ltd. rose 3.5% to Rs 2,016 apiece after the company received Letter of Award (LoA) for the development of 6-lane Amritsar-Bathinda Greenfield section of NH-754A, as part of Amritsar-Jamnagar Economic Corridor in Punjab under Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase 1.

In an exchange filing, the company said that big project cost was Rs 927 crore and the first year Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Cost is estimated at Rs 3.87 crore. The completion period for the project is 730 days and the operation period is 15 years from the commencement of commercial operations.

All the three analysts tracking the company maintained ‘buy’ recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 5.1%

Shares of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. rose 3.32% to Rs 1,767.7 apiece, after the company said its wholly owned subsidiary, L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering, was bestowed with 3 gold awards by the American Society of Safety Professionals for exemplary performance in the field of health, safety and environment, for projects in Kuwait.

L&T's Whole-Time Director & Senior Executive Vice President Subramanian Sarma said that the award affirmed the company's commitment to Health, Safety & Environment in the region.

Of the 44 analysts tracking the company, 42 maintained 'buy', one maintained 'hold' and one maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 6.7%.

Shares of Adani Enterprises Ltd. rose nearly 3% to Rs 1,480 apiece after the company said that its wholly owned subsidiary Adani Airport Holdings Ltd. signed share subscription agreement with Flemingo Travel Retail Pvt (Flemingo) and Mumbai Travel Retail Pvt (MTRPL) for the purpose of strategic partnership to operate duty free outlets in airports and seaports.

In an exchange filing, Adani Enterprises said that the strategic partnership would allow the company to operate duty free outlets in airports and seaports by Flemingo and Adani Airport Holdings Ltd.

On completion of the transaction, Adani Airport Holdings will subscribe to 28,49,000 equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each constituting 74% of share capital of MTRPL for an aggregate investment of Rs 28.49 crore.

• Reliance Jio added net 65 lakh mobile users in July.

• Bharti Airtel added net 19 lakh mobile users in July.

• Vodafone Idea lost net 14 lakh mobile users in July.

• India's total mobile users rise 0.5% month-on-month to 119 crore as of July 31.

Source: TRAI Data

• S&P BSE Sensex hit a record 59,749.82 in intraday trade.

• The 30-stock index had hit a record 59,737.32 on September 17 (Friday)

India's stock benchmarks shrugged off taper concerns and inched towards record highs, aided by gains in banking, realty and metal stocks.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 1.31% to 59,698.06, as the 30-stock index moved within touching distance of the record high logged on September 17. The NSE Nifty 50 also advanced by similar magnitude to 17,769.10, just over 20 points away from the record high. Reliance Industries Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.8%. Bajaj Finserv Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 6%.

The broader indices mirrored their larger peers with both the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap adding over 1%. All the 19 sectoral indices compiled by the BSE Ltd. advanced, with S&P BSE Realty index adding nearly 5%.

The market breadth was skewed in favour of bulls. About 2,101 stocks advanced, 1,013 declined and 157 remained unchanged.

Shares of Computer Age Management Services Ltd. rose 2% to Rs 3,503.8 apiece. The company launched MF Central, in collaboration with KFin Technologies Pvt. MF Central is a one-of-its-kind digital solution for enhanced service experience for mutual fund investors, the company said in an exchange filing.

The platform expects to transform investor experience with the mutual fund industry through its single window view across all mutual funds. MF Central aims to render all conceivable transaction types in an automated and digitized manner and is expected to go live by the end of this calendar year. The first phase of the new platform, which covers non-commercial transactions has gone live today.

Of the seven analysts tracking the company, five maintained 'buy' and two maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied a downside of 16.4%.

Shares of Sarda Energy & Minerals Ltd. rose 5% to Rs 704.05 apiece after the company informed that Chhattisgarh State Electricity Regulatory Commission approved provisional tariff for the 113 Mega Watt hydropower project of Madhya Bharat Power Corporation Ltd.

Madhya Bharat Power Corporation is a subsidiary of Sarda Energy & Minerals. In an exchange filing, Sarda Energy & Minerals said that the provisional tariff has been approved considering 85% of the cost of project incurred as per audited accounts of the company as of 31^st March 2021.

The final tariff will be determined based on the cost incurred up to the date of commissioning.

Trading volume on the stock was 2 times the 30-day average volume for this time of the day.

Infosys shared updates on the progress it is making on the Income Tax E-Filing Portal.

• Portal has seen steady increase in usage over the last few weeks.

• Taxpayers' concerns being progressively addressed

• Over 3 crore taxpayers have logged into the portal and successfully complete various transactions.

• Working expeditiously to further streamline end-user experience.

• More than 15 lakh unique taxpayers have logged into the portal, daily, during the month of September.

• Over 1.5 crore returns have been filed in the month of September till date.

• Over 85% of taxpayers who have filed their returns have also completed their e-verification, largely through Aadhaar OTP authentication.

• Portal is facilitating over 2.5 lakh returns filing on a daily basis and ITR 1,2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 are now available for filing.

Source: Exchange Filing by Infosys

• Shares of Bajaj Finserv Ltd. rose 6.16% to Rs 18,699 apiece. Trading in the ccompany's call options was double the average. Trading volume was double the 20-day average for this time of the day.

• Bajaj Finserv is the top gainer on the NSE Nify 50 index.

• The relative strength index on the stock was above 70, indicating it may be overbought.

• Shares of Bajaj Finserv have extended gains for the fifth straight session.

• Of the 11 analysts tracking the company, eight maintained 'buy' and three maintained 'hold' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied a downside of 26.1%.

• China has decided not to melt too much of iron ore or use it in their blast furnaces and to import more of semis (semi-finished products).

• We are getting more and more inquiries for billets, blooms, pig iron and direct-reduced iron from China.

Source: VR Sharma, Managing Director at Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. to Bloomberg TV

Shares of JBM Auto Ltd. rose 17.18%, the most intraday gains in nearly a year, to Rs 539.4 apiece after the company received orders for supply on 500 CNG/Electric buses.

The orders pertain to

• BS VI CNG Buses for Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Limited (DIMTS)

• Electric Buses for Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC)

• Electric Buses for Jhansi – Smart City, Uttar Pradesh and

• Electric Buses for multiple corporate clients.

• Dish TV India did not receive any communication or request from Yes Bank for holding an EGM

• Dish TV India did not receive any communication or request from Yes Bank to revamp the board.

• Media reports stating that Yes Bank urged Dish TV to hold EGM, revamp board are incorrect

Source: Dish TV India exchange filing

Maturities across the India sovereign yield curve were little changed in Thursday morning trading.

• The 5-year yield was little changed at 5.592%

• The 10-year yield was little changed at 6.136%

• The 14-year yield was little changed at 6.645%

• The 5-year-10-year yield spread was 54.4bps, vs previous close 54.5bps

• Shares of Welspun India Ltd. rose 9.91%, the most in 19 weeks, to Rs 153 apiece.

• Trading volume was six times the average for this time of the day.

• The relative strength index on the stock was above 70, indicating it may be overbought.

• Analysts have seven 'buy', two 'hold' and no 'sell' recommendations on the stock.

Welspun India approved plan to augment towel manufacturing capacity by 20% to meet the growing demand from overseas customers, on Saturday (September 18). The company is expected to invest Rs 656.5 crore for the capacity expansion. The company also approved capex of Rs 143.6 crore to be invested over FY22 and FY23, for de-bottlenecking and rebalancing of its facility in Telangana

Shares of Indian budget carrier IndiGo have surged more than 70% over the past year, helping the airline leave behind marquee names like Singapore Airlines Ltd., China Eastern Airlines Co. and Qantas Airways Ltd. in market value. If stock of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd., which operates IndiGo, sustains its current pace of growth, the carrier will soon get ahead of Japan’s ANA Holdings Inc. to become Asia’s third-largest airline. India, the world’s third-biggest domestic aviation market, has gradually opened up after a devastating spell of Covid, leading to a 137% jump in air traffic in August versus July. IndiGo, with a market share of 57%, is poised to benefit the most as an emerging middle-class flies for the first time, lured by no-frills, ultra-cheap fares. Singapore Airlines and Qantas have jumped less than 50% over the past 12 months, while China Eastern has dropped more than 6%

Shares of Piramal Enterprises Ltd. gained the most in at least seven weeks after the company's board said it will considering issuing NCDs to raise up to Rs 400 crore on private placement basis.

The stock rose as much as 5.9% to Rs 2,794 apiece on the National Stock Exchange. It was the best performer among peers. The trading volume was six times the average for this time of the day.

Of the six analysts tracking the company, five maintained 'buy' and one maintained 'hold' recommendation. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 1.4%

Shares of Infosys Ltd. rose 1% to Rs 1,733.85 apiece after the company announced collaboration with Amazon Web Services to develop quantum computing capabilities and use cases.

In an exchange filing post market hours Wednesday, Infosys said it will use Amazon Braket to explore and build multiple use cases in quantum computing as part of Infosys Cobalt cloud offering. Amazon Braket is a fully managed quantum computing service that helps scientists and developers.

Of the 49 analysts tracking the company, 42 maintained ‘sell’, four maintained ‘hold’ and three maintained ‘sell’ recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 4.7%. Shares of Infosys advanced 37.6% in 2021 so far compared to 51.13% gains for NSE Nifty IT Index.

Shares of Tejas Networks Ltd. rose 5% to Rs 416.5 apiece after the company announced that it has been selected by Bharti Airtel Ltd., to enhance its optical network capacity in key metropolitan markets.

In an exchange filing, Tejas Networks said it will supply, install and support its state-of-the-art products for extending Airtel's optical networks towards the edge, supporting 5G backhaul, B2B services and broadband applications.

The enhanced capacity will enable Airtel to deliver a superior experience to its consumers as data consumption continues to grow.

Finance Ministry officials plan to pitch for a sovereign rating upgrade from Moody’s Investors Service when it meets with the firm on September 28.

Source: Bloomberg Reports Citing People Familiar With The Matter

Indian bond traders will focus on Operation-Twist style open-market operations where the central bank will buy longer- maturity government bonds and sell shorter-term bonds. The rupee may open lower on the back of a stronger dollar, spurred by Fed chair Jerome Powell signaling taper could start soon.

10-year yields rose 2bps to 6.14% on Wednesday

USD/INR rose 0.3% to 73.8675 on Wednesday

Global funds sell net Rs 1,940 crore of Indian stocks Wednesday: NSE

• They bought Rs 778 crore of sovereign bonds under limits available to foreign investors, and added Rs 3,560 crore of corporate debt

• State-run banks bought Rs 1,760 crore of sovereign bonds on Sept. 22: CCIL data. Foreign banks sold Rs 47.54 crore of bonds.

India's stock benchmarks opened higher, aided by gains in metal, banking and auto stocks, amid strong global cues as global markets rose after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank could begin scale back asset purchases in November and complete the process by mid-2022.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.69% to 59,334.50. The NSE Nifty 50 also advanced by similar magnitude to 17,670. Reliance Industries Ltd. contributed the most to the index gain, increasing 1.2%. Coal India Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 2.8%. In early trading, 48 of 50 shares rose, while 2 fell.

The broader indices outperformed their larger peers with the S&P BSE MidCap largely and S&P BSE SmallCap gaining nearly 1%. Barring S&P BSE Power, all the other 18 sectoral indices compiled by the BSE Ltd. advanced, with S&P BSE Realty and S&P BSE Metal adding over 1.5%

The market breadth was skewed in favour of bulls. About 1,732 stocks advanced, 338 declined and 74 remained unchanged.

• Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. has been declared as the preferred bidder for the Kasia Iron & dolomite mine situation in Odisha at a premium of 118.10%.

• The Kasia iron ore mine has a large resource of 278 million tonnes of iron ore and it consists of an average iron grade of approximately 62.5%.

• The mine has favourable lumps to the fine ratio of 20:80. The mine has an environmental clear of 7.5 MTPA.

• The mine was earlier owned and operated by Essel Mining & Industries Ltd.

Tejas Networks Ltd. announced that it has been selected by Bharti Airtel Ltd., to enhance its optical network capacity in key metropolitan markets.

In an exchange filing, Tejas Networks said it will supply, install and support its state-of-the-art products for extending Airtel's optical networks towards the edge, supporting 5G backhaul, B2B services and broadband applications.

The enhanced capacity will enable Airtel to deliver a superior experience to its consumers as data consumption continues to grow.

Asian stocks were steady early on Thursday after U.S. shares took in their stride the prospect of a reduction in Federal Reserve stimulus as early as November. The treasury yield curve flattened.

Stocks rose in Australia and dipped in South Korea. Japan is shut for a holiday and Hong Kong will reopen from one. U.S. futures climbed after the S&P 500 pushed higher for the first time in five sessions and the Nasdaq 100 advanced.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank could begin scaling back asset purchases in November and complete the process by mid-2022. Officials also revealed a growing inclination to raise interest rates next year. Shorter-maturity treasury notes fell while longer-maturity debt edged higher. The dollar rose. Cash treasuries won’t trade in Asia because of the Japan holiday.

India’s SGX Nifty 50 Index futures for September delivery rose 0.5% to 17,648.00, while MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.4%. The NSE Nifty 50 Index fell 0.1% on Wednesday to 17,546.65.

Traders are continuing to monitor the debt crisis at China Evergrande Group. Some investor concerns appear to have eased though questions remain after the developer — which is straining under more than $300 billion of liabilities — issued a vaguely worded statement on a local bond interest payment. The focus has shifted to a payment due on a dollar note.

Elsewhere, oil pared a rally, gold held a retreat and Bitcoin traded above $43,000.

Back home, Bharat Heavy, Man Infra, Affle India are among companies holding their annual shareholders’ meeting. Foreign investors bought net Rs 1,330 crore of stocks on Tuesday, according to NSDL website.