Indian stock markets ended at record highs on Wednesday with Sensex and Nifty mounting fresh closing peaks led by an uptick in shares of SBI, ITC, HDFC, TCS, HDFC Bank, Infosys and Yes Bank. Though, Sensex and Nifty closed almost flat as compared to their today’s opening levels. The benchmark Sensex closed up 21.66 points or 0.06% at 36,161.64 after opening at 36,161.62 and NSE Nifty settled 2.3 points or 0.02% higher at 11,086 after opening down 14.35 points at 11,069.35. In the afternoon trades, shares of PSU banks spiked ahead of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley press conference about bank recapitalisation plan. Stocks of telecom companies including Airtel and Idea were the major laggards on Wednesday after Reliance Jio Infocomm surprised with the Republic Day tariffs. During the day, Sensex added as much as 128.21 points to hit an all-new lifetime high of 36,268.19 while Nifty advanced 26.4 points to a fresh record high of 11,110.1.
Among the sectoral indices of National Stock Exchange, Nifty PSU Bank index surged 3.49% to conclude at 3,965.6 led by a rise in heavyweight shares India’s largest lender State bank of India. The stock of SBI emerged as the top gainer on Sensex rising as much as 3.62% to finish at Rs 329.5. Shares of Adani Ports, TCS, ITC, Yes Bank, ONGC, Dr Reddy’s HDFC, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto, and Infosys soared 0.5-2.5% today. Shares of telecom companies such as Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel came under pressure after the Mukesh Ambani backed telecom company Reliance Jio Infocomm surprised with the all-new Republic day offer. The stock of Bharti Airtel crashed 7.25% to a 3-month low of Rs 455.3 before finishing down 6.51% at Rs 458.95 on BSE.
Shares of Idea Cellular slid to a one-month low after the Aditya Birla group telecom company’s net loss for the October-December period more than tripled. India’s third-largest telecom company posted a net loss of Rs 1,284.5 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2017, saying a ‘sharp’ cut in the call connect charges and tariff war amid the telecom companies hit the earnings. Idea Cellular reported a steep increase of 234.59% to Rs 1,284.5 crore in the Oct-Dec quarter for the financial year 2017-2018 from Rs 383.9 crore in the same period a year earlier. Following a massive jolt in the Q3 earnings, shares of Idea Cellular tanked as much as 6.64% to a one-month low of Rs 92.75 before settling down 5.69% at Rs 93.7 on NSE.
Shares of L&T Technology Services get locked in the upper circuit spiking as much as 20% to hit the all-time high in the morning trades on Wednesday after the technology arm of L&T group reported a rise of 16.1% in the third-quarter consolidated net profit. The tech firm L&T Technology Services posted an increase of 16.1% in its consolidated net profit to Rs 126.3 crore for the quarter ended 31 December 2017. The company had registered a profit of Rs 108.7 crore in the same period a year earlier. Following the development, the stock of L&T Technology Services rose as much as 20% to the lifetime high of Rs 1,216.55 on BSE. Following a sharp spike in the share prices of L&T Technology Services, the technology firm added about Rs 2,073 crore in the market capitalisation to Rs 12,439.09 crore from Rs 10,365.99 crore as on Tuesday.