Sensex, Nifty volatile on COVID-19 blues

After falling over half a per cent in the previous trading session Indian benchmark equity indices turned volatile on Tuesday. Opening with half a per cent gains indices entered negative terrain and soon recovered from days lows.  In opening trades, Sensex gained 357 points, or 0.73%, at 49,516 and the Nifty50 index at 14,734 jumped 96 points or 0.66%.

M&M, NTPC, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank & Powergrid were top gainers on the Sensex. While ONGC, ITC, HCL Tech, Nestle & Reliance Industries were the laggards.

All sectoral indices were trading in the green with the Nifty Metal index leading the pack with gains of 1.70% followed by Nifty Pharma rallying 1.05 & Nifty Realty index jumping 1.03%. Nifty Bank & Nifty Auto were trading with 1% gains and Nifty IT & Nifty FMCG indices were up about 0.5%.

Market breadth favoured the bulls as 1,335 shares advanced while 397 stocks declined and 507 scrips remained unchanged.

The broader market was trading in line with benchmark indices as BSE Midcap & BSE SmallCap indices jumped 0.82% and 0.92% respectively.

Stocks in spotlight:
Maruti Suzuki India’s total production jumped to 172,433 units in March 2021 from 92,540 units in March 2020. The production of passenger vehicles rose to 170,036 units in March 2021 compared with 91,602 units in March 2020. Production of light commercial vehicles surged to 2,397 units in March 2021 from 938 units in March 2020.

Avenue Supermarts said that standalone revenue from operations for the quarter stood at Rs 7,303.13 crore as compared to Rs 6,193.53 crore in the same period last year. The total number of stores as of 31 March 2021 stood at 234.

The board of directors of IRCON International approved and recommended the issuance of one bonus share for each share held.

Sobha said the company has achieved the best-ever total sales volume of 1,337,707 square feet of super built-up area valued at Rs 10.72 billion in Q4 2021.

Panacea Biotec announced that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) and Panacea Biotec, one of the leading vaccine and pharmaceutical producers in India, has agreed to cooperate to produce 100 million doses per year of Sputnik V, the world’s first registered vaccine against coronavirus.

Trident said that a major fire has been broken out on Monday in the Cotton warehouse located in the manufacturing facilities at Budhni, Madhya Pradesh.

Ucal Fuel Systems informed that the company has fully lifted the lockdown at the plant situated at Puducherry with effect from 5th April 2021.

Global markets:
Overseas, Asian stocks are trading mixed on Tuesday, after major indexes on Wall Street surged to record closing highs overnight stateside. Markets in Hong Kong are closed today for a holiday.

China’s services sector activity grew in March, according to a private-sector survey released Tuesday. The Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers’ Index for March came in at 54.3, as compared to February’s reading of 51.5.

U.S. stocks rallied on Monday with the Dow and S&P 500 closing at record levels, as a round of strong economic data buoyed investor optimism for the economic reopening.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 373.98 points to 33,527.19, a record closing high. The S&P 500 gained 1.4% to 4,077.91, also hitting a new record close. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also climbed 1.7% to 13,705.59.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday pushed for a global minimum corporate tax in an effort to keep companies from relocating to find lower rates.

Meanwhile, a measure of U.S. services industry activity soared to a record high in March. The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing activity index jumped to a reading of 63.7 last month. That was the highest in the survey’s history and followed 55.3 in February.