Sensex, Nifty Rise For Third Day Led By I.T., FMCG, Power Stocks

India's stock benchmarks advanced, aided by gains in information technology, fast moving consumer goods, power and realty stocks. The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 logged gains for the third consecutive sessions as concerns eased over the omicron strain after preliminary data from three studies showed that hospitalisations due to the variant may be less likely than that of the delta variant.

Sensex rose 0.68% to 57,315.28. This is the first time the 30-stock gauge reclaimed the 57,000 mark after December 17. Sensex rose nearly 1% in intraday trade and reached within touching distance of 57,500. The NSE Nifty advanced by similar magnitude to 17,072.60. The 50-stock gauge reclaimed 17,000 mark after three sessions since Friday.

Power Grid Corp. of India had the largest increase, rising 3.4%. Today, 36 of 50 shares rose, while 14 fell.

The broader indices almost mirrored their larger peers with S&P BSE MidCap rising over 1% and S&P BSE SmallCap adding 0.73%. Barring S&P BSE Telecom and S&P BSE Metal indices, all the other 17 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced, with S&P BSE Realty gaining over 2%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 2,195 stocks advanced, 1,123 declined and 131 remained unchanged.

The partnership with IndiGo will offer customers of Air France and KLM access to 25 new Indian destinations, the two companies said in a joint statement Thursday.

• The Air France-KLM agreement will open up more that 250 destinations for IndiGo customers (120 in Europe, 50 in Americas)

• Partnership likely to start in February, pending government approval.

Source: Bloomberg

Shares of Ami Organics Ltd. rose over 12.6% to Rs 983.7 apiece after the company announced plans to restructure one of its Gujarat factories to achieve better utilisation from pharma intermediate business and improve operational efficiency.

The current production operations of speciality chemical business at Ankleshwar facility will be moved to Jhagadia facility in Gujarat.

The company has already received the environment clearance for the proposed restructuring plans.

• Dish TV served a copy of the petition filed by a group of shareholders against the company and Yes Bank.

• Petition seeks a declaration that Yes Bank is committing unlawful acts resulting in gross mismanagement of Dish TV.

• Dish TV to consider next steps in the matter.

Source: Dish TV Exchange Filing

Hero Motocorp has announced that it will hike the prices of its motorcycles and scooters up to Rs 2,000 from January 4, 2022.

In an exchange filing, the company said that the price revision has been done to partially offset the impact of rise in commodity prices.

The exact quantum of increase will depend on the model and market.

Source: Exchange Filing

Shares of Cipla Ltd. rose nearly 2.5% to Rs 911.6 apiece as analysts expected the recent U.S. FDA approval for Lanreotide injection to present a $1.5 billion opportunity for the company.

The product has the same active ingredient as Somatuline, which generated $750 million annual sales in the U.S.

Lanreotide has been approved for acromegaly and gastroenteropancreatic neutoendocrine tumours.

Nirmal Bang

• Reiterates 'buy' on the stock with the target price raised to Rs 1,101 from Rs 1,041 per share; an implied return of 21.38%.

• Lanreotide is likely to have an opportunity to gain market share from Somatuline analogues.

• Cipla's entry into Lanreotide is well-timed.

• With Cipla launching Lanreotide at a discount, there is a good possibility of market share gains for the drug.

• Conservatively building in a 10% market share for Cipla at a 30% price discount by the end of FY24.

Key Risks

• An imminent approval for a generic player as an ANDA of Lanreotide could restrict Cipla's peak sales opportunity.

• Believe that Dr Reddy's and Sun Pharma are developing Lanreotide for the U.S. market.

Besides Nirmal Bang, Bernstein has also reiterated 'outperform' on Cipla with the target price kept unchanged at Rs 995; an implied return of 9.67%.

Of the 40 analysts tracking the company, 33 maintained 'buy', six maintained 'hold' and one maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 18.9%.

Shares of Quess Corp Ltd. rose over 2% in intraday trade to Rs 813 apiece after Motilal Oswal reiterated 'buy' recommendation on the company's stock and maintained target price at Rs 1,100.

Motilal Oswal said that the fund infusion in the company's Monster.com subsidiary from Merdian Investments and Volrado Venture Partners is a positive, but identified it as also a potential risk as Monster.com contributes nothing to the net profit.

The brokerage also expressed concerns on Monster's expansion within job search due to the dominating presence of Naukri and added that it may need additional funding to disrupt the monopoly of Naukri.

Motilal Oswal

• Maintains 'buy' with the target price unchanged at Rs 1,100.

• Strong hiring trends have led to robust demand recovery.

• Quess should benefit from government's efforts to liberalise and formalise labour markets.

• Improvement in cash conversion/RoE should drive re-rating.

• Resurgence of covid remains a risk which might impact near term growth.

Of the 13 analysts tracking the company, 12 maintained 'buy' and one maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 34.6%/

• Volkswagen India to hike prices across its offerings ranging from 2% to 5% depending on the model and the variant.

• Price increase not be applicable on the newly launched Volkswagen Tiguan

• Price hike effective from Jan 1, 2022.

Source : Company Statement

Shares of GAIL India Ltd. rose as much as 2.46% to Rs 133.4 apiece after the company approved payment of interim dividend of Rs 4 per equity share for FY2021-22.

The record date for the purpose of payment of interim dividend has been fixed at December 31, 2021.

Of the 36 analysts tracking the company, 34 maintained 'buy' and two maintained 'hold' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 45.2%

Source: Exchange Filing, Bloomberg

Shares of Transformers & Rectifiers India Ltd. rose over 11.5%, the biggest intraday gain in nearly two weeks, to Rs 32.3 apiece after the company secured orders of transformers for a total contract value of Rs 72 crore from Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation Ltd. (GETCO)

The company's order book stands at Rs 816 crore, as on date.

Trading volume on the stock was 3.2 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day.

Shares of Transformers & Rectifiers India rose above the 50-day simple moving average, indicating potential upward price momentum.

Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd. received the approval from Ministry of Corporate Affairs for changing the name of the company to Shriram Finance Ltd.

Source: Exchange Filing

India's stock benchmarks advanced, aided by gains in information technology, banking, power, realty and oil and gas stocks. Concerns over omicron eased a bit supporting the global rebound in equities after preliminary studies showed omicron strain may be relatively less likely than delta strain to land patients in hospitals.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.79% to 57,381.62. This is the first time the 30-stock gauge reclaimed the 57,000 mark in intraday trade since December 17. The NSE Nifty 50 also advanced by similar magnitude to 17,088.40. As with Sensex, Nifty also reclaimed the 17,000 mark after three sessions.

The broader indices almost mirrored their larger peers with both S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap gaining over 0.8%. Barring S&P BSE Telecom, all the other 18 sectoral indices compiled by BSE advanced wtih S&P BSE Realty index leading the gains.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 2,227 stocks advanced, 974 declined and 144 remained unchanged.

The rupee advances to a two-week high as risk sentiment improves across Asia after studies indicated the omicron variant may be less damaging to health than the earlier delta strain.

• USD/INR drops 0.3% at 75.35, extending declines into a sixth day

• India’s 10-year bond yield is little changed at 6.46%

Shares of Man Industries India Ltd. rose 6%, the biggest intraday gain in eight sessions, to Rs 100 apiece after the company secured new orders worth Rs 225 crore.

In the current quarter, the company has bagged orders worth Rs 900 crore.

The unexecuted order book stands at Rs 1,700 crore, as on date. The orders are expected to be executed in six to seven months.

Shares of Dilip Buildcon Ltd. rose over 6%, the biggest intraday gain in over two weeks, to Rs 506.45 apiece after the company received the provisional completion certificate from the State of Maharashtra for its four-lane project between Sangli and Solapur.

The project has already been declared fit to entry into commercial operations. The revised completion date of the Rs 1,141 crore project was February 19, 2022.

Of the 12 analysts tracking the company, seven maintained 'buy', one maintained 'hold' and four maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 29.7%.

Shares of Havells India Ltd. rose 1.64% to Rs 1,394 apiece after the company showcased its state-of-the-art manufacturing plant for Lloyd's ACs in Ghiloth, Rajasthan.

The company also entered washing machine production at the same location. The greenfield washing machine unit is expected to strengthen Lloyd's washing machine production capacity with a targeted output of 3 lakh units annually.

Of the 43 analysts tracking the company, 21 maintained 'buy', 16 maintained 'hold' and six maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied a downside of 0.4%

Shares of Macrotech Developers Ltd. rose as much as 5.33% in intraday trade to Rs 1,277 apiece after the company announced partnership with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) to develop premium warehousing project near Mumbai with an investment of Rs 600 crore.

In a state, the company said it closed a deal with MSREI to develop 1.9 million square feet area at Palava Industrial and Logistics Park.

Macrotech will act as the development manager for the project, responsible for leasing, project development and asset management.

On Wednesday, India Ratings & Research reaffirmed the company's credit rating and revised the outlook to 'positive' from 'stable'.

The revised ratings for bank loans, NCDs and fund-based limits are IND BBB+/Positive from IND BBB+/Stable previously. The rating for non-fund based limits remained unchanged as IND A2.

Of the 11 analysts tracking the company, nine maintained 'buy' and two maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 1.5%

Shares of Mold-Tek Packaging Ltd. rose over 3%, the biggest intraday gain in eight sessions to Rs 770 apiece after the company successfully completed the QIP at 2.44% premium over floor price aggregating to Rs 103.6 crore.

• In an exchange filing, the company said it received overwhelming response for its QIP issue, from many marquee investors.

• The funds who have invested in this QIP include Goldman Sachs India Equity, White Oak India Equity Fund, Aditya Birla Sun Life Trustee Private Limited, ICICI Prudential SmallCap fund.

Shares of Jindal Saw Ltd. rose 4.3% to Rs 104.3 apiece after the company entered into a joint venture agreement with Hunting Energy Services, Singapore on Wednesday.

A JV company will be incorporated in India with 51% shareholding to be held by Jindal Saw and remaining 49% to be held by Hunting Energy.

With the JV, Jindal Saw aims to set up state-of-the-art precision machine shop to thread premium connections in India for OCTG (Oil Country Tubular Goods), used in deep drilling activities in oil and gas sector.

Trading volume on the stock was 4.7 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day.

Geospatial, engineering and enterprise IT solutions provider Ceinsys Tech Ltd.'s shares rose 20% to a record Rs 211.05 apiece, on the Bombay Stock Exchange, after the company acquired Allygrow Technologies Pvt Ltd., a tech company with presence in U.S., Europe and India. Allygrow Technologies specialises in robotics automation and product design services.

Trading volume on the stock was 31.1 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day.

The relative strength index on the stock was 83, suggesting it may be overbought.

Source: BSE, Bloomberg

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

• The 5-year yield fell 0.8bps to 5.798%

• The 10-year yield fell 0.5bps to 6.46%

• The 20-year yield remained unchanged at 6.914%

• The 5-year-10-year yield spread was 66.2bps, vs previous close 65.9bps.

Source: Bloomberg

• Whenever rupee appreciates too much, the central bank intervenes and loosens our buffers.

• When rupee starts depreciating, unless and until it's too violent, I have not seen RBI intervening too much.

• Spread of omicron, widening trade deficit, dovish RBI and high oil prices contribute to the decline in the rupee.

• Expect rupee to trade in 75.50-76.50 to a dollar in the short term and a broader 74-77 band next year.

• Unless we get capital inflows to compensate for the trade and current account deficit, rupee will have a tendency to depreciate.

Bhaskar Panda, Senior Vice President, Treasury Advisory Group, HDFC Bank

Source: Interview to Bloomberg TV

Shares of Zomato Ltd. shed over 2.3%, the steepest intraday decline in three sessions, to Rs 135.45 apiece after the company was served with a copy of writ petition filed by Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT).

The petition which included Uber India, Swiggy, Ola also as respondents besides Zomato seeks directions from court to government to notify or recognise app-based workers as 'workers' or alternatively as 'unorganised workers' or 'wage workers' under various labour laws.

It also seeks direction for covid-19 pandemic related relief for app-based workers.

Zomato said that it is reviewing the petition and will present all relevant facts before the apex court.

Of the 19 analysts tracking the company, 14 maintained 'buy', one maintained 'hold' and four maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 23.5%

Source: Exchange Filing, Bloomberg

Shares of Nucleus Software Exports Ltd. rose as much as 4.93%, the biggest intraday gain in three months, to Rs 521 apiece after the company's lending and transaction banking products' consortium was awarded the contract for its retail loan origination system. The contract was awarded by Join Stock Commercial Bank of Vietcombank.

The FinnOne Neo software of Nucleus Software-FPT Information System (FIS) consortium, will help Vietcombank provide end-to-end digitisation and launch innovative loan products. It will also enable smooth customer on-boarding process, standardise credit appraisal process etc.

Trading volume on the stock was 4.3 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day.

Shares of Infosys Ltd. rose 1.93% to a record Rs 1,860 apiece. The stock has risen for three consecutive sessions, notching up gains of nearly 2.7% compared to Nifty IT index which rose 3.91%.

Of the 49 analysts tracking the company, 45 maintained 'buy', two maintained 'hold' and two maintained 'sell' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 8.3%

Shares of MedPlus Health Services listed at Rs 1,040 apiece, on the National Stock Exchanged, a 30.65% premium to its IPO price of Rs 796.

Shares of Great Eastern Shipping Co Ltd. rose 9.26%, the biggest intraday gain in nearly four months, to Rs 299.7 apiece, after the company said it will consider a proposal to buy-back fully paid-up equity shares on December 27, in an exchange filing post market hours Wednesday.

Trading volume on the stock was 61.3 times the 30-day average volume, for this time of the day.

India's stock benchmarks advanced, aided by gains in metal, auto and banking stocks. The rebound in global equities continued after preliminary studies showed omicron strain may be relatively less likely than delta strain to land patients in hospitals.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.47% to 57,197.04. The NSE Nifty 50 advanced by similar magnitude to 17,045.80.

The broader indices almost mirrored their larger peers with the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap rising 0.7%. All the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced, with S&P BSE Realty, Oil & Gas, Metal gaining over 1%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 1,917 stocks advanced, 485 declined and 70 remained unchanged.

Indian bonds traders will assess the minutes of central bank’s December policy minutes released Wednesday for clues on the pace of policy normalization. The rupee may extend its weekly gains, tracking Asian peers.

USD/INR down 0.1% at 75.5513 on Wednesday; down 0.7% so far this week, headed for first drop in five.

• 10-year yields little changed at 6.47% on Wednesday.

• Global funds sell net Rs 827 crore of India stocks Wednesday: NSE.

  • They bought Rs 10 crore of sovereign bonds under limits available to foreign investors, and added Rs 61 crore of corporate debt.

• State-run banks sold Rs 578 crore of sovereign bonds on Dec. 22: CCIL data. Foreign banks sold Rs 170 crore of bonds.

Source: Bloomberg