Indian stock markets opened higher with Sensex and Nifty starting at fresh highs in the morning trade on Thursday but both the key indices very quickly swung into losses within seconds of beginning trades ahead of F&O expiry and Q3 earnings of Maruti Suzuki. BSE Sensex started the day at 36,208.39 up by 46.75 points while NSE Nifty began at a record high of 11,095.6, up by 9.6 points. Shares of blue-chip companies such as Dr Reddy’s Lab, Maruti Suzuki and UPL will be in close watch ahead of their respective Q3 earnings. Shares of L&T, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Tata Motors, Axis Bank emerged as the top gainers on Sensex today.
Among the sectoral indices of NSE, seven out of 11 were trading in green with Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma leading the charge while Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty IT index shed 0.5-2.5%. Shares of the state-run UCO Bank surged over 6% to Rs 33.55 while the stock of Biocon slipped nearly 5% after the drugmaker reported a drop of 46% in the net profit to Rs 92 crore. Other major companies which are also lined up with their respective third-quarter results are Ajanta Pharma, LIC Housing Finance, Future Supply Chain Solutions, Jindal Steel & Power, Nilkamal, Shriram City Union Finance, Tata Coffee, L&T Finance Holdings, and Avenue Supermarts.
Shares of PSU banks traded mixed as a profit booking was seen after yesterday’s surge ahead of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley detailing about Rs 2.11 lakh crore PSU bank recapitalisation plan in a press conference. Almost all PSB (public sector bank) shares got a kick in the late afternoon trades on Wednesday ahead of Arun Jaitley presser held on Wednesday. Shares of prominent banks such as IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda surged up to 6% on Wednesday. The benchmark Nifty PSU Bank index shot up 3.49% to conclude at 3,965.6 led by a rise in heavyweight shares India’s largest lender State bank of India, PNB and Bank of Baroda.
Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar laid down 6-point reforms for the PSBs and said their performance will be under the annual assessment. Of the 21 PSBs, IDBI Bank emerged as the biggest beneficiary yesterday as the bank was allocated a whopping Rs 10,610 crore followed by Bank of India (Rs 9,232 crore), SBI (Rs 8,800 crore), UCO Bank (Rs 6,507 crore) and Central Bank of India (Rs 5,158 crore) from the government.