Indices open flat, Nifty hovers around 15,200

It was tepid opening for Indian benchmark indices on Thursday amid mixed global cues and elevated crude prices. Sensex opened down 12 points or 0.02% at 51,690, and the Nifty was down 2 points or 0.01% at 15,206.

ONGC, TechMahindra, SBI, HCL Tech & Infosys opened with gains of 1-3%. Whereas counters like ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Banks, M&M and HDFC were top losers on the Sensex.

Nifty PSU Bank jumped another 3% after rallying 6% yesterday. Nifty IT & Nifty Metal indices were trading up. On the other hand, Nifty Bank was down 0.19% & Nifty Auto lost 0.31% in opening trades.

Stock in focus

Bharti Airtel said that it will acquire a Warburg Pincus affiliate’s 20% equity stake in its DTH arm Bharti Telemedia for a total consideration of about Rs 3126 crore which will be discharged primarily via issuance of 36.47 million equity shares of Bharti Airtel at a price of Rs 600 per share, and up to Rs 1037.80 crore in cash. The proposed transaction is part of Airtel’s strategy to align the shareholding of its customer-facing products, services and businesses under the same holding group. A full control and ownership over Bharti Telemedia allows Airtel to offer differentiated and converged solutions to customers so as to promote “One Home” strategy.

GAIL (India) said its share buyback will open on 25 February 2021 and close on 10 March 2021.

Phillips Carbon Black said that the company has commissioned two speciality black lines at Palej, Gujarat for production of wide range of speciality black products totalling about 32,000 MTPA to service the growing needs of its customers.

VA Tech Wabag has completed the Financial Closure for its Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) project received from Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).

Dish TV India said the company’s board approved raising funds through permissible modes and issue of permissible securities, for an amount up to Rs. 1,000 crores, in one or more tranches

Global markets

Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed on Thursday, as investors watched movements in mainland Chinese stocks as they returned from the Lunar New Year holiday. Lingering pandemic concerns pushed against stronger economic data, and with little firm direction from Wall Street.

In US, the Nasdaq closed lower while the S&P 500 was little changed on Wednesday as investors rotated out of technology shares and concerns about inflation added some pressure on stocks.

The global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.24 per cent higher at USD 65.14 per barrel.