Budget euphoria continues, Sensex opens above 50,000

Benchmark equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty extended their gains for the third straight session on Wednesday as the post-Budget rally continued with brisk buying in banking, IT and pharma stocks. The 30-share index Sensex opened 433 points up at 50,231, while the Nifty50 rose 107 points to 14,754.

As many as 19 stocks in the Sensex pack were trading in the green in morning trade with IndusInd Bank gaining the most 6.38%. Dr Reddy’s Labs, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra and Sun Pharma were up between 2%-5%.

Stocks In Focus Today:

Home First Finance: Shares of Home First Finance will debut on the bourses today. The issue was subscribed 27 times.

RIL, Future Group stocks: Shares of Reliance Industries and Future Group companies will be in focus today after the Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked Future Retail to maintain the status quo with respect to its $3.4 billion deal with Reliance Retail.

V-Mart Retail: The company has set the issue price for its QIP at Rs 2,450 per share.

Dr Reddy’s Labs: Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine showed 91.6 per cent efficacy in the phase 3 trials. Its India partner, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has said that it would apply for emergency approval in March and that it aims to launch the vaccine in the same month.

Tata Consumer Products: The firm reported a 25.26 per cent YoY rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 237.03 crore for the third quarter ended December 2020, helped by higher sales in branded business. It will acquire Bengaluru-based Kottaram Agro Foods for Rs 155.8 crore to expand its product portfolio.

Ajanta Pharma: The company reported a 64 per cent YoY jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 177 crore for the quarter ended December, mainly on account of robust sales, as againt a net profit of Rs 108 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Indigo Paints: India Acorn ICAV bought 5.38 lakh shares of Indigo Paints at Rs 2,719.79 per share. Nomura India Investment Fund bought 5.30 lakh shares at Rs 2,601.54 per share. AL Mehwar Commercial Investments LLC bought 4.13 lakh shares at Rs 2,774.47 per share. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority bought 6.41 lakh shares at Rs 2,730.29 per share. Edelweiss Finance And Investments sold 3.50 lakh shares at Rs 2,613 per share.

Results Today:

Bharti Airtel, Adani Enterprises, Adani Green Energy, Apollo Tyres, Aptech, Arvind Fashions, Astral Poly Technik, Adani Total Gas, Bajaj Consumer Care, City Union Bank, Deepak Fertilisers, Hindustan Copper, Indian Hotels, Inox Leisure, Jubilant FoodWorks, PNC Infratech, Prince Pipes and Fittings, Ramco Systems, SeQuent Scientific, Thermax, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, V-Guard Industries, VIP Industries.

Global markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading higher on Wednesday following an overnight surge on Wall Street.

Japan’s services sector shrank at the fastest pace in five months in January. The final au Jibun Bank Japan Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to a seasonally adjusted 46.1 from the prior month’s 47.7, marking the lowest reading since August.

US stocks finished sharply higher for a second straight day on Tuesday, helped by gains in Amazon.com and Google-parent Alphabet ahead of their results and by optimism over progress on a US pandemic relief package.

Meanwhile, investors will be following stimulus negotiations in Washington, after congressional Republicans made a counteroffer to President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan on Sunday.

Biden met with those lawmakers on Monday as congressional Democrats moved toward passing a reconciliation bill without bipartisan support. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki described the meeting as substantive and productive.

(With inputs from Capital Market – Live News)