Sensex zooms 250 points; Nifty above 14,750

After falling over 4% in the last five trading sessions, Indian indices opened in green on Tuesday. In opening trades Sensex zooms 250 points at 49,994 while Nifty rose 106 points to open at 14,782.

On the Sensex, ONGC rallied over 4%, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Reliance Industries, and L&T were all trading with gains of 1.5%. Whereas Asian Paints, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank fell over a per cent, HDFC twins lost over 0.5% in opening trades.

All sectoral on NSE were trading in green with Nifty Realty leading the pack gaining over 2% followed by Nifty Metal up 1.52%, Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty IT & Nifty FMCG rose around 0.5% in early trades.

India Vix also cooled down by 2.62% in opening trades. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, is strong. On the BSE, 1472 shares rose and 542 shares fell. A total of 91 shares were unchanged.

Stocks in focus
Reliance Industries (RIL) today, 23 February 2021 said that it is carving out its Oil-to-Chemicals (O2C) business into an independent subsidiary. RIL said it will retain 100% management control of the new subsidiary. All of its refining, marketing and petrochemical assets will be transferred to the O2C subsidiary. RIL said that the promoter group will continue to hold a 49.14% stake in the O2C business after the reorganisation and that the process will result in no change in shareholding of the company.

Bharti Airtel will meet global fixed income investors on or after 23 February 2021, following which and subject to market conditions, the company will take a final decision with respect to the issuance of foreign currency bonds/ notes (‘Issuance’) and a deal may or may not follow. Accordingly, subject to such final decision, a duly authorized Special Committee of Directors may meet anytime on or after two working days to consider the Issuance and its detailed terms and conditions.

Bharat Forge and Paramount Group announced a cooperation that will see them join the technologies, capabilities and expertise of both groups in order to manufacture Armoured Vehicles in India.

Zomato has raised USD 250 million from five different investors. The transactions valued Zomato at a post-money valuation of USD 5.4 billion. On a fully converted and diluted basis, Info Edge’s effective stake in Zomato stands at 18.4%.

IRB Infrastructure Developers said its board of directors has approved the allotment of unlisted, unrated, secured, redeemable, nonconvertible debentures aggregating to Rs 2,184.55 crore on a private placement basis to India Toll Roads.

Global markets

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading mixed on Tuesday, as investors monitored technology stocks regionally after their counterparts declined overnight on Wall Street. Markets in Japan are closed on Tuesday for a holiday.

In US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed lower on Monday as climbing Treasury yields and prospects of rising inflation triggered valuation concerns, hitting shares of high-flying growth companies.

The U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee on Monday approved legislation with $1.9 trillion in new coronavirus relief, advancing a top priority of President Joe Biden toward a full House vote on passage expected later this week.

All eyes will be on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who delivers his semi-annual testimony on the economy before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. His comments on rates and inflation could determine the market direction for the week.