Sensex opens 280 points higher, Nifty tops 15,800; banks, auto stocks gain

Domestic equity benchmarks opened half a per cent higher on Monday tracking a positive trend in Asian peers. US shares also closed higher on Friday on speculation that the Federal Reserve has scope to continue providing substantial stimulus support.

In early trade, Sensex climbed 280 points or 0.53% to 52,774, while the Nifty 50 advanced 83 points or 0.53% at 15,805.

Gainers and losers

Of 30 Sensex shares, 29 opened in the green. Bajaj Auto was the top gainer on 30-share index followed by TCS, PowerGrid, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank. Dr Reddy’s was the only laggard.

All sectoral indices on NSE were in the green. Nifty Realty rose 0.65%, Nifty Auto advanced 0.61%, Nifty Bank rose 0.54%, Nifty Metal index climbed 0.50%, Nifty FMCG gained 0.40%, Nifty IT and Nifty Pharma added about 0.25% each.

“A strong rebound in US growth might nudge the Fed to advance rate increases. Of course, they will do this by giving carefully worded advance hints. But markets may anticipate the Fed moves and set directions. Even though the market is strong & resilient in India, at the current level of valuations the risk-reward ratio is not in favour of reward. At higher levels, FIIs are likely to sell more. Q1 FY22 results season kicking off this week is also likely to witness stock-specific action,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services

Stocks in spotlight

HCL Technologies announced a multi-year agreement with Fiskars Group, consisting of a family of lifestyle brands including Fiskars, Gerber, Iittala, Royal Copenhagen, Waterford and Wedgwood. HCL as a partner will enable Fiskars to standardize and harmonize their IT and business processes, drive operating model transformation and increase overall digital maturity.

Avenue Supermarts (D-Mart) said that its standalone revenue from operations has increased to Rs 5,031.75 crore in Q1 June 2021 from Rs 3,833.23 crore in Q1 June 2020, registering a YoY growth of 31.27%.

India Pesticides will debut on the bourses today, 5 July 2021. The issue price is Rs 296 per share.

CSB Bank said that its total deposits increased 14.17% to Rs 18,652.80 crore as of 30 June 2021 from Rs 16,337.95 crore as of 30 June 2020.

Indian Hume Pipe Company has received the Letter of Acceptance for the work of about Rs.257.60 crores (including GST) from Madurai City Municipal Corporation for dedicated Water Supply Scheme for Madurai City Municipal Corporation for construction of distribution Network System (DI & HDPE), House service connections and Instrumentation for Madurai City Municipal Corporation Added Area-Package-4.

DCB Bank on Saturday (3 July) announced a downward revision of marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by 4 basis points across different tenors.

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology (MeitY) approved 14 eligible applicants under the Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) for IT hardware manufacturing. Dixon Technologies (India) is one of the 14 companies (domestic & international) which has been granted approval under the PLI scheme of the Government of India for IT hardware manufacturing.

Gujarat Industries Power Company (GIPCL) announced the restoration of unit-2 (125 megawatts) of its Surat Lignite Power Plant (SLPP) situated at Surat, Gujarat.

Apcotex Industries said its plant at Valia, Gujarat has been shut down for planned maintenance activities for about 11 days, effective from 2 July 2021.

Wonderla Resort in Bangalore is set to reopen its business from 5 July 2021 with a 50% capacity as a crowd control measure.

Global markets

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading mixed on Monday after U.S. shares climbed further on speculation the Federal Reserve has scope to continue providing substantial stimulus support.

A private survey on China’s services sector activity in June showed growth slowing sharply in June to a 14-month low. The Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers’ Index for June, released Monday, came in at 50.3 — a significant decline from May’s reading of 55.1.

U.S. markets will remain closed on Monday in observance of Independence Day.