Sensex, Nifty Gain For Second Day Led By Auto, I.T. Stocks

Indian equity markets ended the weekly options expiry session with gains, extending their winning run to the second day.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended 1.2% higher at 35,843, while the NSE Nifty 50 index ended at 10,551, up by 1.17%. As of closing today, the Sensex is up 1.9% while the Nifty is up 1.6% on a weekly basis.

Banks were the underperformers in today's session. The Nifty Bank index ended little changed, led mainly by losses in Axis Bank. The PSU Bank index too ended little changed, with a negative bias.

Auto stocks outperformed in today's session with the Nifty Auto index ending 2.9% higher. Gains were led by Mahindra and Mahindra (up 6.4%) and Hero MotoCorp (up 5.2%). Both the stocks were also the top two gainers on the Nifty 50 index.

The other sector that contributed to gains today was I.T. The Nifty I.T. index ended 2.65% higher led by Infosys, HCL Tech and TCS.

Broader markets moved in tandem with the benchmarks with the midcap and smallcap index ending with gains of 1% each.

The India Volatility Index ended 5.7% lower at 26.5 - its lowest level in four months.

Market breadth remained in favour of the advances throughout the session. 1,090 stocks on the NSE ended with gains while 720 ended with losses.

Shares are little changed after gaining as much as 1.55% to Rs 2,886.

The company reported a 12% rise in its standalone sales for the April-June period to 1.56 million tonnes.

Production during the period grew 8% to 1.67 million tonnes, it said in an exchange filing. This was the highest ever quarterly steel production achieved by the company.

According to the company, exports contributed 58% of the total sales volume during the quarter.

Exports were the highest ever at 9 lakh tonnes during the quarter.

Shares gained as much as 2.2% to Rs 157.20, post the announcement.

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in an impounding order said that eight entities of the company, indulged in insider trading of the company's stock between July 7 to July 10, 2017.

The entities include CFO L Kishore Babu, his son Praveen Lingamneni, banking team manager Nagesh Lingamaneni and his wife Lakshmi, Licensing team manager D Srinivasa Rao and his wife Radhika and Gopichand Lingamaneni and his wife Pushpa Latha Devi.

The regulator has alleged unlawful gains of Rs 96.68 lakh against these entities.

It has frozen all debits from their bank and demat accounts and has directed them to not alienate assets.

Shares fell as much as 6.75% to Rs 2,090 and are down for the fourth straight day.

The construction company has been declared as the L-1 bidder for a new EPC project worth Rs 4,167.7 crore, it said in an exchange filing.

The project involves construction of Bhadbhut Barrage, flood protection embankments and associated works across the river Narmada in the Bharuch district of Gujarat.

The project is to be completed over a period of 48 months and involves a maintenance period of 10 years.

Shares gained as much as 9.44% - the biggest single-day jump in over two-months to Rs 297.40, the highest level in nearly four months.

Indian equity markets opened higher for the second day, tracking positive cues from Asia and positive developments over a potential Covid-19 vaccine.

The S&P BSE Sensex opened 0.54% higher at 35,604 while the NSE Nifty 50 index opened 0.6% higher, near the 10,500 mark at 10,493. 48 out of the 50 index constituents have opened with gains.

Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty Pharma index was the only sectoral laggard opening 0.4% lower while the Media index opened 1.4% higher. The Nifty Realty, Nifty Bank and Nifty Auto index gained 0.7% each.

Market breadth opened in favour of the advances. 1,078 stocks on the NSE opened with gains while 363 declined.

• Global cases cross the 10.6 million mark
• Death toll rises to 5.15 lakh
• Daily cases in the U.S. cross 50,000 for the first time ever
• Reopenings halted in cities like New York and California
• Only one new case reported in Beijing
• Victoria in Australia reported 77 cases in 24 hours
• Death toll in Mexico reached 28,510, surpassing Spain
• 54 new cases confirmed in South Korea

• ABB Power & Product Systems: Hitachi and ABB announce the formation of Hitachi ABB Power Grids Ltd., after completion of all required procedures as planned. Hitachi has 80.1% stake in the new JV. The agreement for the same was signed in December 2018. The alliance with Hitachi will facilitate expansion opportunities into areas such as mobility, smart cities, industry, energy storage and enable access to Japan, the third largest economy in the world.
• Covid-19 Impact On India Cements: Operations resumed in phases from April. Dispatches resumed on a lower scale from April 15. Very difficult to predict economic growth in the immediate two quarters given resumption of lockdown in certain parts of Tamil Nadu. Availed the first moratorium offered by the RBI and has requested lenders to extend the second moratorium.
• Dixon Technologies: Forays into manufacturing set top boxes. Total investment in the same to be Rs 40-50 lakh. The company expects a revenue of Rs 100-150 crore from the same in FY21.
• Eveready Industries: Core categories of batteries and flashlights witnessing healthy demand due to sharp decrease in dumped imports from China and disruptions caused to the unorganised market due to non-availability of supplies. The situation in the battery segment may improve further once full implementation of BIS Standards comes into force. Existing Vice Chairman Aditya Khaitan named as Chairman of the company.
• NMDC: Sets lump iron ore prices at Rs 2,450 per tonne and iron ore fines at Rs 2,160 per tonne from June 30. June sales of iron ore down 7% to 2.48 million tons.
• Coal India: Coal production in June down 12.8% to 39.2 million tonnes and coal offtake down 15% to 41.61 million tonnes.
• Reporting Earnings Today: Maharashtra Scooters

To know more about results reported after market hours, key brokerage updates and more, click here.

• Positive vaccine developments and better-than-expected manufacturing data tempered concerns over a jump in virus cases.
• S&P 500 ended higher for the third straight day.
• Nasdaq closed at a record high after an early trial of an experimental shot from Pfizer Inc. and BioNtech SE showed it was safe and prompted patients to produce antibodies.
• Fed minutes reveal that participants feel the economy needs support for 'some time'
• Manufacturing gauge jumped to the highest in more than a year
• Monthly jobs report to be released later today
• Bloomberg Dollar spot index fell 0.3%
• Yield on the 10-year treasury stood at 0.68%
• West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.3%. It is down 0.4% today.

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Good Morning!

Indian equity markets entered July on a strong note, ending with gains on the first trading day of the month. The benchmarks closed over 1% higher, led by banking stocks.

The Singapore-traded SGX Nifty, an early indicator of the Nifty 50 Index’s performance in India, rose 0.6% to 10,459 as of 7:45 a.m.

Asian markets are trading with gains after positive overnight developments of a potential Covid-19 vaccine.

Markets in Japan pared gains on subdued volumes, while those in Hong Kong edged higher despite tensions over a new national security law.

Futures on the Dow Jones trade with a positive bias after the benchmark ended lower on Wednesday. The Nasdaq composite ended at a record high.

Yield on the 10-year treasuries stood at 0.68%, while West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.4% to $39.66 per barrel.

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