Market HIGHLIGHTS: Sensex surges 539 points, Nifty settles at 13,749; RIL, HDFC twins lead rally on D-Street

BSE Sensex surges 529 points to end at 46,973, while the broader Nifty 50 index jumped 148 points to settle at 13,749

Following Sebi’s directions mandating changes in multicap schemes, Axis Mutual Fund on Thursday renamed its multicap scheme and moved it to a new category where it will not be constrained by market cap restrictions. The new scheme will undergo changes on the fund allocation across asset classes, an official statement said.

Read full story

Domestic equity markets were volatile during the week ended 24th December 2020. The equity markets were concerned about the new strain of the COVID-19 virus found in UK which according to some reports was more infectious than the current form of the disease. With lockdowns being enforced in many parts of Europe and UK, there were some renewed concerns among the Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs). However, reports from vaccine manufacturers that the current vaccine would likely be effective against the new strain as well helped assuage some of the market concerns. On global front, US markets remained buoyant ahead of the Christmas break as investors cheered a potential Brexit deal and signs of an economic recovery. US economic data showed lower jobless claims and an uptick in new orders for durable goods. Oil prices also moved upwards with lower than expected inventories: Shibani Sircar Kurian, Senior EVP & Head- Equity Research, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company

ndian share markets witnessed a correction earlier this week on the back of new COVID strain found in the UK. Headline indices BSE Sensex and the broader index Nifty 50 have rallied over 80 per cent from their respective March lows till December 21, 2020. According to the analysts at ICICI Direct Research, Nifty witnessed a V-shaped recovery post a 40 per cent correction, on the back of a host of positive news flow in 2020.

Read full story

Axis Bank shares gained over 3% on Thursday, followed by ONGC and Reliance Industries Ltd, making them the top three gainers on S&P BSE Sensex. 

“This has been a short but eventful week with wide gyration in stock prices. After the sharp correction seen on Monday prices have recovered in the last three days. Monthly expiry has also contributed to the higher volatility. Nifty’s closing near the previous week high indicates strong rollovers on the back of healthy FII flows seen this month. IT stocks have again come into limelight because of the large mega deals announced by Infosys and Wipro this week. Some of the old economy stocks from oil & gas, automobile and metals & mining have come under selling pressure this week. This week has seen moderation in flows from both FIIs and DIIs. We can expect muted FII activity in the next week also due to year end phenomenon but expect activity to pick up sharply from the first week of January. Most probably Nifty should take support at 13,000 levels with likely break out above the 14,000 level sometime in January," said Rusmik Oza, Executive Vice President, Head of Fundamental Research at Kotak Securities.

Efforts by Indian policy makers to open up rupee corporate bond sales to more investors took a step backward during the pandemic, as borrowers shunned tighter regulations in the public market in a record dash for funds. Private bond placements, which restrict the number of investors in a deal, have long accounted for the vast majority of debt sales in India’s local-currency credit market, but they rose to 99% of all offerings this year, the most in at least a decade. A bigger public debt market should help reduce borrowing costs for issuers by increasing competition for deals, and boost liquidity by drawing in more participants to transactions.

“This has been a short but eventful week with wide gyration in stock prices. After the sharp correction seen on Monday prices have recovered in the last three days. Monthly expiry has also contributed to the higher volatility. Nifty’s closing near the previous week high indicates strong rollovers on the back of healthy FII flows seen this month. IT stocks have again come into limelight because of the large mega deals announced by Infosys and Wipro this week. Some of the old economy stocks from oil & gas, automobile and metals & mining have come under selling pressure this week. This week has seen moderation in flows from both FIIs and DIIs. We can expect muted FII activity in the next week also due to year end phenomenon but expect activity to pick up sharply from the first week of January. Most probably Nifty should take support at 13,000 levels with likely break out above the 14,000 level sometime in January.” Rusmik Oza, Executive Vice President, Head of Fundamental Research at Kotak Securities

Nifty index opened positive and witnessed sustain buying interest throughout the session towards 13620 zones. It managed to continue its positive move for second consecutive session and recovered well from recent panic low of 13133 to 13620 zones. It formed a Bullish candle on daily scale and making higher lows from last two sessions. Now it has to continue to hold above 13500 zones to witness a bullish bias towards life time high of 13750-13777 zones while on the downside major support exists at 13333 and 13131 levels.

Overall trend is likely to be with buy on declines strategy. Option traders are suggested to be with positive bias for an up move towards 13700 zones. Buy nearby 13600 Call or Bull Call Ladder Spread. Trading Range: Expected wider trading range : 13500 to 13700 zones.

~ Motilal Oswal

Anupam Rasayan India Ltd has filed a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the capital market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The company looks to raise Rs 760-crore through initial public offer (IPO). According to the draft, the net proceeds of the issue will be utilised for the repayment or prepayment of certain indebtedness availed by the company of Rs 556.20 crore and for general corporate purposes.

Read full story

After a failed delisting bid earlier this year, promoters of Vedanta Limited are now looking to increase their stake by 5% in the commodities major through an accelerated bookbuild purchase of equity shares from Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB). Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta’s promoters are now looking to buy equity shares at a price of Rs 150-160 per share, a premium to yesterday’s closing price. The move comes months after the promoters tried to delist the firm at a heavy discount. On Thursday, shares of the firm surged 13% to trade at a high of Rs 170.5 apiece.

Read full story

New players entering on the back of the economy revival will need to match production costs with the larger players while incurring higher costs in building fresh capacity. Hence 2021 will require the food industry to manage lean inventories while retaining production capacity and ensuring modular scalability. The world is at best 12 to 14 months away from a full recovery hence any decision to revisit business models drastically will be self-limiting. Hence in 2021, the hospitality sector will need to think cautiously, plan with greater optimism and act with more boldness. A defensive approach will at best be self-destructive: Sanjay Kumar, CEO & MD, Elior India

Currently, risk-on sentiment is guiding markets so far as the Brexit optimism has overshadowed Trump’s tricks over signing the stimulus bill and new strain of virus which doesn’t seem that deadly. Whereas, rupee gradually recovers from its weakness and is successfully holding below the 74.00 resistance level due to selling pressure, inflows and dollar weakness. Overall, as long as the pair stays within its present narrow-range of 73.40-74.00 levels, upticks between 73.80-74.00 shall be taken as selling opportunity: Amit Pabari, managing director, CR Forex Advisors

"Antony Waste Handling Cell issue was subscribed 15 times by the end of the issue, unlike last time in March'20 when the issue was not even subscribed a single time. Non-institutional portion was subscribed most by 18.7 times. Retail portion and qualified institutional buyer portion was subscribed by 16.5 times and 9.7 times respectively. Although Antony got a way better response compared to last time in March'20 when it was raising funds from the market. If I compare Antony IPO response with last few IPO such as Burger King, Mrs Bector; the response from investors for Antony has not been as good as these IPO. Business is dependent on a limited number of customers for a significant portion of the revenue. So considering the valuation of P/E of 11.5x on FY20 basis (at the upper price band), we recommended “NEUTRAL” rating on the issue," said Keshav Lahoti, Associate Equity Analyst, Angel Broking Ltd.

Telecom stocks such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries Ltd and Vodafone Idea were in focus today after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) released data on Wednesday. Bharti Airtel share price surged 3 per cent to rs 522.95 apiece in early deals on BSE, as it reported the highest number of subscriber additions for the second straight month in October. The telecom giant had reclaimed the leadership position in terms of subscriber addition after a four-year gap.

Read full story

Among the top Sensex gainers on Thursday morning were ONGC, Bharti Airtel, and Bajaj Auto. ONGC shares were up 3.85%.

Sensex started the day's trade with gains, crossing 46,700 while the Nifty 50 index zoomed past 13,650.

Sensex gained nearly 300 points during the pre-open session on Thursday while Nifty crossed 13,650.

Pre-open session Thursday took both the benchmark indices higher, hinting at a strong start to the trading session on the weekly expiry day. 

Nifty soared during the pre-open session to breach 13,850. Sensex jumped over 250 points as it crosses 46,700.

Nifty futures were trading 37 points up at 13, 655.50 on Singaporean Exchange, indicating a gap-up opening for BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 on Thursday ahead of the Christmas holiday. Indian share market benchmark indices continued their rebound from losses of December 21, 2020, for the second straight day and ended higher in the previous session. Investors will keep tabs on newsflow related to new COVID-19 strain, coronavirus vaccine, oil prices, movement in rupee and other global cues along with stock-specific development.

Read full story

After recent gains, call writing has been seen at 14,000 strike, which also holds the maximum Call Open Interest (OI) with 29.89 lakh contracts. This is followed by 24.98 lakh contracts at 13,500 strike. 

Most Put OI is at 13,000 strike with 47.94 lakh contracts, followed by 13,500 strike with 34.42 lakh contracts.

"The pattern of higher highs and higher lows on the daily remains intact. If Nifty moves above 13640-13650 expect the index to trade above 13800-13900 before the end of the current expiry. International markets also seems to have emerged out of mutating covid virus scare. Support for Nifty is at 13550 a break below this and we Nifty could see a decline towards 13400. Most probably Bull will be the winner on Weekly expiry day," said Manish Shah, Founder, Nifty triggers.com.

Bharti Airtel, RIL, Vodafone Idea: For the third month in a row, Bharti Airtel has added the maximum number of wireless subscribers at 3.67 million in October, followed by Reliance Jio which added 2.23 million customers. Vodafone Idea continues to lose customers with a decline of 2.65 million subscribers.

Read full story

Global rating agency S&P Global Ratings today affirmed its 'BBB-' long-term and 'A-3' short-term issuer credit ratings on Indian Bank. The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. "We affirmed the ratings because we expect Indian Bank to be able to absorb a moderate deterioration in its asset quality over the next 12 months and benefit from the faster-than-expected economic recovery in India," S&P Global said.

Markets have corrected sharply in the last one week. A sharp bounce back in the last two sessions has however curbed the losses. Broad market indices like the BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices too have bounced back from close to their 50-day SMAs indicating a possibility that the short term correction is over and markets are ready to resume their intermediate uptrend.

Read full story

Markets on Wednesday were driven up by the strong rally in the information technology (IT) stocks, thanks to the surge in the prices of IT services companies like Infosys and Wipro. The Nifty IT index rose 2.36%, which is higher than the 1% gain in the 50-share benchmark. Market experts continue to remain positive on the sector on account of a multi-year growth cycle awaiting the sector.

"Market witnessed a sharp correction in the first half of the week. Nifty50 which was trading around the 13750 mark witnessed a steep correction to test 13150 odd levels. We Expect volatility to remain high in the near term for the next few weeks. Buy on dips would be the suggested strategy. Value is seen around the 12800-13000 mark while on the higher side 13800-14000 is expected to act as supply zone. Staggered buying and disciplined trading is the best strategy in volatile markets," said Sahaj Agrawal, Head of Research- Derivatives at Kotak Securities.

Mrs Bectors Food Specialities shares are scheduled to make a stock market debut today. The Rs 540-crore IPO was subscribed a whopping 197.38 times, becoming the most subscribed issue of 2020 so far. The company is the largest supplier of buns in India to QSR chains such as Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC, Carl’s Jr, Pizza Hut and Dominos Pizza. It sells its premium bakery products under ‘English Oven’. Mrs Bectors Food came up with its public issue following the successful listing of Burger King India which was listed with a 92 per cent premium to its issue price of Rs 60. In the grey market today, Mrs Bectors Food Specialities shares were seen trading at Rs 503 apiece, implying a premium of Rs 215 or 75 per cent over the IPO price of Rs 288 apiece. 

Read full story