Sensex, Nifty Rebound After Monday's Free Fall Aided By Metals, I.T. Stocks

India's stock benchmarks bounced back after the sharp decline in the previous session. Both S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty advanced, aided by gains in information technology, metals, realty and telecom stocks, amid concerns over the omicron variant and faster withdrawal of monetary stimulus by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.89% to 56,319.01. The 30-stock gauge rose nearly 2% in intraday trade and hovered in the vicinity of 57,000 before paring the gains. The NSE Nifty 50 also advanced by similar magnitude to 16,770.85. The 50-stock gauge rose above 16,930, just shy of the reclaiming the 17,000 mark in intraday trade after two sessions. The move was the biggest since rising 1.7% on Dec. 8 and follows the previous session's decrease of 2.2%. HCL Technologies Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 3.9%. Today, 39 of 50 shares rose, while 11 fell.

The broader indices outperformed their larger peers with S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap adding over 1.25%. All the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced with S&P BSE Metal adding 3%. S&P BSE Consumer Durables and S&P BSE Basic Materials gained over 2%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 2,287 stocks advanced, 1,031 declined and 113 remained unchanged.

"Markets witnessed a decent rebound and gained nearly a percent, taking a breather after the recent fall. The benchmark opened with an uptick and inched further higher however selling pressure in the latter half trimmed the gains", Ajit Mishra, VP - Research at Religare Broking Ltd. wrote in a note. He added "the updates on the new variant are keeping the choppiness high globally and we expect this trend to continue in the near future. Among the sectors, only the IT pack has been showing a steady uptrend while others are trading mixed. In case of a further rebound, Nifty would face a hurdle around the 17,000-17,150 zone. Participants should limit leveraged positions until we see some stability".

Shares of Oil India Ltd. rose 8.70%, the biggest intraday gain in nearly two months, to Rs 187.4 apiece.

• Trading volume on the stock was 59% above the 20-day average volume, for this time of the day.

• The company trades at 4.4 times its estimated earnings per share for the coming year.

• Analysts have 14 'buy', five 'hold' and three 'sell' recommendations on the stock. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 43%.

Source: Bloomberg

• In India, for the time being, we do not have as many omicron cases that we have seen elsewhere.

• Occupancy is back to pre-pandemic levels and will likely hit upwards of 80% this quarter.

• Not looking at omicron as a reason for us to derail our plans, domestic leisure is bound to grow.

• Inflation does affect us, but I do not expect a dip in our margins.

-Kavinder Singh, CEO, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd. in an interview to Bloomberg TV

Shares of Gujarat Gas Ltd. rose nearly 4%, the biggest intraday gain in over two weeks, to Rs 635.5 apiece after Jefferies maintained its 'buy' rating and target price citing that the underlying demand remained intact despite the near-term softness in volumes.

Jefferies

• Maintains 'buy' recommendation, with the target price unchanged at Rs 830 apiece, an implied return of 35.71%.

• Underlying demand could be strong at 8 mmscmd.

• Morbi Ceramic Association expects demand to be ideally around 8.5 mmscmd.

• About 75% of 50-60 plants which were expected to come online have already been commissioned.

• Rise in prices has not resulted in decline in interest for Indian tiles .

• Sharp price hikes taken by Gujarat Gas has resulted in improved margin outlook.

Of the 31 analysts tracking the company, 20 maintained 'buy', six maintained 'hold' and five maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 10.8%.

• Vedanta Ltd. has 67.9 million shares, constituting 1.8% of equity, change hands in a block deal.

• Details of buyers and sellers are not immediately known.

Source: Bloomberg

CSB Bank Ltd. has been empanelled as 'agency bank' by the Reserve Bank of India. This will allow CSB Bank to undertake general banking business of the central and state governments which may be entrusted by the central bank.

CSB Bank can now enter into agreement with state governments and central government departments for businesses like tax collections, pension payment, collection of stamp duty etc. CSB Bank is also eligible to handle transactions related to government business like TDS, GST, stamp duty, registration, property tax, value added tax and professional tax.

Source: Press Release by CSB Bank

Paisalo Digital Ltd has signed a co-lending loan agreement with Punjab National Bank. The agreement is done to enable MSME segment and empower Agri, Allied Agri, women entrepreneurs and small businesses.

PNB-Paisalo co-lending platform will leverage on PNB's low cost of funds on the liability side and Paisalo's origination and rule engine underwriting capabilities on the asset side, the company said in an exchange filing.

• Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. has approved the investment proposal of new crude oil pipeline system with a capacity of 17.5 million tonnes per annum, along with the augmentation of crude oil tank farm at Mundra at a cost of Rs 9,028 crore.

• The project will meet the enhanced crude oil requirement needed due to capacity expansion of Panipat refinery from 15 MMTPA to 25 MMTPS.

• The project is expected to be completed within 36 months.

Source: Exchange Filing

Chalet Hotels Ltd. has approved the offer of secured, unlisted, non-cumulative, redeemable and non-convertible debentures upto an amount of Rs 375 crore to International Finance Corporation on a private placement basis.

Source: Exchange Filing

Shares of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. rose as much as 5.70%, the biggest intraday gain in nearly a month, to Rs 350.4 apiece. The 90-day exclusivity period to conduct due diligence for the merger with Sony ended today.

Of the 22 analysts tracking the company, 16 maintained 'buy', five maintained 'hold' and one maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 6.9%.

Birla Tyres Ltd. an approved a draft scheme of arrangement for internal reconstruction of the company. Birla Tyres seeks to restructure its debt and demerge its 'yet-to-operate' Passenger Car Radial Tyre Plant into a newly formed company.

In an exchange filing, the company said that the decision will enable debt reduction through monetisation of passenger car radial tyre plant and generate revenue from the running plant.

Source: Exchange Filing

Shares of Exide Industries Ltd. rose as much as 5.67%, the biggest intraday gain in nearly 15 weeks, to Rs 164.05 apiece after the company decided to participate in the PLI scheme for battery storage (advanced chemistry cell), as proposed by the government.

In its board meeting Tuesday, the company decided to set up a multi-gigawatt lithium ion cell manufacturing plant.

Of the 26 analysts tracking the company, 19 maintained 'buy', six maintained 'hold' and one maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 37.6%. Trading volume on the stock was 1.6 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day.

India's stock benchmarks climbed higher, after yesterday's free fall, aided by metals, information technology, consumer durables and realty stocks.

The S&P BSE Sensex added over 1,000 points to 56,880.22, an 1.9% intraday increase. The NSE Nifty 50 also advanced by similar magnitude to 16,928.50. Tata Steel Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 4.2 percent. In midday trading, 48 of 50 shares rose, while 2 fell.

The broader indices almost mirrored their larger peers with the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE MidCap gaining 1.9%. All the 19 sectoral indices compiled by the BSE Ltd. advanced, with S&P BSE Metal leading the gains, rising nearly 4%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 2,486 stocks advanced, 751 declined and 97 remained unchanged.

Shares of Latent View Analytics Ltd. shed over 9% in intraday trade to Rs 486 apiece. The stock has fallen nearly 17% over the last two sessions as the lock-in period for anchor investors ended on Monday. The share of anchor shares to outstanding in the company stood at 7%.

• Shares of Indus Towers Ltd. rose 6.6%, the biggest intraday gain in a month, to Rs 253.5 apiece.

• Trading volume on the stock was 1.5 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day.

• Indus Towers trades at 12 times its estimated earnings per share for the coming year.

• Analysts have 11 'buy', 11 'hold' and six 'sell' recommendations on the stock. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 17.9%.

Indian bonds extend declines as crude price rebound adds to inflationary pressures in the oil importer nation. RBI’s move on Monday to withdraw liquidity for shorter tenor also weighed on debt. Rupee gains for a fourth day.

• 10-year yields rose 2bps to 6.46%; rose to 6.47%, highest since April 2020

• 5-year yield climbs 3bps to 5.79%

• USD/INR falls 0.3% to 75.6950

Source: Bloomberg

Shorter-term India sovereign securities declined in Tuesday morning trading.

• The 4-year yield rose 7.1bps to 5.533%

• The 10-year yield rose 2.5bps to 6.46%

• The 20-year yield remained unchanged at 6.914%

• The 4-year-10-year yield spread was 92.7bps, vs previous close 97.3bps

• The NSE Nifty 50 Index rose 1.7%

Source: Bloomberg

ITC Ltd. has acquired 1,964 compulsorily convertible preferece shares of Rs 10 each of Delectable Technologies Pvt Ltd. in the third tranche, on Monday, the company said in an exchange filing.

With this acquisition, ITC's shareholding in Delectable comes up to 27.34% of the total share capital on a fully diluted basis.

Source: Exchange filing

CESC Ltd. has approved the issue of 1,000 redeemable, rated, senior, secured, unlisted non-convertible debentures having a face value of Rs 10 lakh each, amounting to Rs 100 crore on a private placement basis.

Shares of CESC Ltd. rose nearly 3%, the biggest intraday gain in three weeks, to Rs 83.6 apiece. Of the 19 analysts tracking the company, 17 maintained 'buy' and two maintained 'hold' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 29.4%.

Shares of Piramal Enterprises Ltd. rose over 2.5% in intraday trade to Rs 2,514.5 apiece after the company said that its subsidiary Piramal Pharma Ltd. acquired 27.78% stake in Yapan Bio Pvt Ltd., for Rs 101.77 crore.

Yapan is a contract process development and manufacturing organisation in Hyderabad. It provides process development, scale-up and complaint GMP manufacturing of vaccines and biologics/bio-therapeutics for human clinical trials across the world. Yapan's turnover in FY21 was Rs 12.4 crore.

The investment is expected to broaden the service offerings of Piramal Pharma in the biologics CDMO space. Nandini Piramal, Chairperson of Piramal Pharma said that the expertise of Yapan will help Piramal Pharma develop and manufacture large molecules. She also added that the investment would aid the company's growth strategy.

All the seven analysts tracking the company maintained 'buy' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 24.7%.

Source: Exchange filing, Bloomberg

Shares of Strides Pharma Science Ltd. rose 5%, the biggest intraday gain in six sessions, to Rs 431 apiece after the company's biotech arm Stelis Biopharma Ltd. commissioned its large-scale integrated vaccine manufacturing facility in Bengaluru.

In an exchange filing, the company said that the facility was successfully inspected by Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). Stelis has also secured an initial Export No Objection Certificate (NOC) from CDSCO. Stelis has export up to 50 million doses of Sputnik Light vaccine.

Stelis partnered with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to produce and supply Sputnik Vaccine in March 2021. The company is on track to commercialise the vaccine for global markets in Q4FY22. The drug protect block of the facility is designed to produce up to 720 million doses in a year.

Of the seven analysts tracking the company, six maintained 'buy', one maintained 'hold' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 40.8%. Trading volume on the stock was 3.4 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day

Source: Exchange Filing, Bloomberg

• Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd.: Motilal Oswal Securities initiated coverage of the stock with a recommendation of 'buy'; price target at Rs 5,900.

Source: Bloomberg

Larsen & Toubro Ltd. said that its wholly owned subsidiary Larsen & Toubro International FZE has entered into a share purchase agreement on Monday to purchase stake in Intelliflux Controls, a Delaware corporation.

• Intelliflux Controls is an integrated water analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence/machine learning to optimise plant performance for water effluent treatment. The cost of the acquisition is $2 million and the number of shares acquired stood at 21,88,569.

Source: Exchange Filing

India's stock benchmarks bounced back from yesterday's free fall and opened higher, aided by banking, metals and realty stocks, amidst positive global cues as investors evaluate the impact of curbs due to omicron variant.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.90% to 56,323.57. The NSE Nifty 50 index also advanced by similar magnitude to 16,769.90.

The broader indices almost mirrored their larger peers with S&P BSE MidCap gaining 0.65% and S&P BSE SmallCap adding 0.93%. Barring S&P BSE Oil & Gas, all the other 18 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced with S&P BSE Realty index rising nearly 2%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 1,880 stocks advanced, 488 declined and 71 remained unchanged.

Indian bonds may extend declines as crude prices rebound to hurt the oil importer. Traders will await cutoffs at a Rs 16,098 crore sale of state debt.

• 10-year yields rose 2bps to 6.44% on Monday; 5-year yield climbed 4bps to 5.76% after the RBI announced a 3-day reverse repo auction on Monday to suck out liquidity.

• USD/INR falls 0.2% to 75.9163 on Monday.

• Global funds sold net Rs 3,570 crore of India stocks Monday: NSE.

  • They sold Rs 593 crore of sovereign bonds under limits available to foreign investors, and withdrew Rs 300 crore of corporate debt.

• State-run banks bought Rs 3,110 crore of sovereign bonds on Dec. 20: CCIL data. Foreign banks sold Rs 917 crore of bonds.

Source: Bloomberg

• Effective duty on RBD Palmolein, including other taxes, will be 13.75%, lower than 19.25% earlier.

Source: Government Notification

• Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. raised to 'buy' from 'hold' at Investec; price target at Rs 1,067.

• Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd. raised to 'buy' from 'hold' at Anand Rathi Securities; price target at Rs 349.

Source: Bloomberg

IDBI Bank has said that it has exposure to Sanghavi Exports International Pvt. Ltd., but the current principal outstanding is only Rs 16.72 crore. In a response to a new article that stated that a default of Rs 6,710 crore has been made by a diamantaire group to IDBI Bank while also mentioning the name of Sanghavi Exports, the lender said that the news contained factual inaccuracies.

IDBI Bank also said that it has initiated requisite action to recover the outstanding dues from Sanghavi Exports.

Source: Exchange Filing

Strides Pharma Science Ltd. said that its biotech arm Stelis Biopharma Ltd. has commissioned its large-scale integrated vaccine manufacturing facility in Bengaluru.

• In an exchange filing, the company said that the facility was successfully inspected by Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). Stelis has also secured an initial Export No Objection Certificate (NOC) from CDSCO. Stelis has export up to 50 million doses of Sputnik Light vaccine.

• Stelis partnered with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to produce and supply Sputnik Vaccine in March 2021. The company is on track to commercialise the vaccine for global markets in Q4FY22. The drug protect block of the facility is designed to produce up to 720 million doses in a year.

Source: Exchange Filing