Sensex ends lacklustre trade 272 pts up; Nifty tops 14,700; metal, IT rally

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex swung within a band of 400 points, hitting a high and low of 49,011 and 48,614 levels, respectively

4:56 PM

TECH VIEW :: Sumeet Bagadia, Executive Director at Choice Broking

On the technical front, the index has confirmed the Bullish Harami Candlestick Pattern, which suggests bullishness in the counter. Moreover, the Index has given closing above the 21-Daily Moving Average, which points out strength in the counter. An oscillator Stochastic has indicated positive crossover, which supports the bullish trend for the near term. At present, the nifty index is holding support at 14500 levels while an upside resistance seems at 14860 levels.

4:44 PM

TECH VIEW :: Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities

 The underlying trend of Nifty continues to be positive with range bound action. A sustainable move above 14725 is likely to result further strengthening of upside momentum and that is likely to pull the market towards 14900-15000 levels again in the near term. Immediate support is placed at 14610.

4:35 PM

MARKET CLOSING COMMENT :: Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Sec

On the day of the weekly expiry of index options, Nifty/Sensex closed at the highest point of the day. 

 

Today, Auto and Technology stocks lifted the market sentiment heavily. Due to the follow-up buying, we saw a recovery in the metal stocks from lower levels. 

 

On a daily chart, the market has formed a bullish continuation formation and we could see the levels of 14770/14850 (49100/49400) on the higher side, however, since last few weeks, the market is finding it tough to sustain at higher levels due to the pressure of the weekend news flow.

 

In brief, we need to be careful to add long positions at higher levels.  On the downside, 14600/48600 and 14500/48300 would be major supports.  The bank-nifty is consolidating and in the medium term a close above the levels of 33000. 

 

The focus should be on commodities, consumer durables and pharmaceutical stocks.

4:22 PM

MARKET CLOSING COMMENT :: Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities

Indian benchmark equity indices rose for the second straight day following healthy global cues. The Nifty opened higher and kept making higher tops higher bottoms through the day. At close, Nifty gained 0.73% or 107 points to 14,724.80.

 

Volumes on the NSE were in line with recent averages. Among sectors, IT, Auto, Metals and Oil & Gas indices rose the most while there were no sectoral losers.

 

Nifty moved above the high of May 04, thus signalling that the May 03 bottom of 14416 is a short term bottom. The next resistance for the Nifty is at 14846 while the support is at 14601. FPI selling seemed to be subdued today, while local traders continued to ramp up prices of select small and midcap stocks. 

4:09 PM

MARKET CLOSING COMMENT :: Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services

Amidst rising covid cases, hopes of recovery through vaccine drives and a positive global market is aiding the domestic market to ride a positive wave. Biden’s decision to waive intellectual property rights on vaccines pumped in global optimism. Metal stocks continued to outshine other sectors as it kick-started its earning season on a better-than-expected note. Auto and IT were the other sectoral leaders while mid and small-cap stocks mirrored the trend

 

4:05 PM

BSE Snapshot :: M-cap of all BSE listed firms climbs above Rs 210-trillion mark

4:04 PM

BSE Snapshot :: Top losers of the day

4:02 PM

BSE Snapshot :: Top gainers of the day

4:00 PM

Broader market check

3:59 PM

Sector Watch :: Nifty Metal zooms 2.5%

Advances: 12

Declines: 3

3:58 PM

Sector Watch :: Nifty PSU Bank end as top sectoral loser

Advances: 4

Declines: 7

Unchanged: 2

3:53 PM

NSE Snapshot :: Top Nifty50 gainers of the day

3:51 PM

HDFC, Infy, ICICI Bank :: Heavyweights that supported the Sensex today

3:48 PM

Sectoral trends on the NSE

3:45 PM

Sensex Heatmap at Close

Top gainers: Bajaj Auto, HDFC, Tech M

Top losers: Power Grid, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank

3:40 PM

Rupee Closing

Rupee ends stronger at 73.76 per US dollar vs Wednesday's close of 73.91/$

3:35 PM

CLOSING BELL

At close, the BSE barometer settled at 48,950 levels, up 272 points or 0.5 per cent.  On the NSE, the 50-share index closed at 14,725 level, up 107 points or 0.7 per cent. 

3:27 PM

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India EBITDA up nearly 3x at $403 mn in Q1

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AMNS India) has recorded a 47 per cent higher EBITDA quarter-on-quarter and 188 per cent year-on-year to $403 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2021.

 

Announcing the earnings, which were the best in a decade for ArcelorMittal, the company said that in the Q1 of Calendar 2021, AMNS India achieved solid production, annualising at 7.3 million tonnes (MT). The company achieved $403 million EBITDA (with a FY21 run rate of $1.6 billion) with a greater focus on export markets. READ MORE

3:24 PM

BUZZING STOCK:: Hero MotoCorp rises to day's high ahead of Q4 results

3:21 PM

Heatmap: S&P BSE Sensex gainers and losers at this hour

3:13 PM

FIIs turn sellers after 6 months but bet big on these 2 sectors in April

The FIIs, which pulled out $1.29 billion from the equity markets last month -- their highest ever since March last year, still ploughed money in the FMCG and real estate sectors for two months in a row, shows a report by Edelweiss Securities. READ MORE

3:01 PM

Covid: Asian vaccine makers' shares fall as US backs patent waiver

U.S. support for a proposal to waive intellectual-property protections for Covid-19 vaccines might be good news for the global inoculation campaign, but it’s an unwelcome turn for firms whose share prices have been buoyed by profits from coronavirus shots. Pfizer Inc., BioNTech SE, Novavax Inc. and CureVac NV declined Thursday in U.S. premarket trading. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co., which has the rights to develop and market BioNTech’s shot in China, plunged 14% in Hong Kong, the most ever. READ MORE

2:48 PM

HDFC Q4 preview: PAT may jump up to 50% YoY amid decline in provisions

Backed by strong individual loan book, healthy net interest income (NII), and fewer provisions, Street expects mortgage lender HDFC to report nearly 50 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase in net profit for March quarter of FY21 (Q4FY21) on May 7. "We foresee improvement across earnings drivers (AUM growth, net interest margin and credit costs) for HDFC over FY22-23 spurring a significant rise in ROA and ROE (high teens). We expect 16 per cent AUM CAGR, over 3 per cent NIM sustenance and less than 2 per cent NPA levels," notes Shweta Daptardar, analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher. READ MORE

2:40 PM

Q4 RESULTS | IIFL Finance Q4 cons net profit at Rs 247.6 cr vs Rs 58.7 cr (YoY)

-- Revenue up 22% YoY at Rs 1,598.5 cr vs Rs 1,306.2 cr

2:31 PM

Tata Steel: Stellar Q4 show sets stage for a better Q1FY22, say analysts

Propelled by an all-round beat in the March quarter (Q4FY21), Tata Steel shares hit a fresh record high of Rs 1,128.8 apiece on the BSE after they rallied 6 per cent in the intra-day deals. Recovering 8 per cent from the day’s low, the stock surpassed its previous record high of Rs 1,088.8 touched on May 5, 2021. In the past one month, the stock of the Tata Group firm has zoomed 30 per cent as against a 0.74 per cent decline in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex. READ MORE

2:22 PM

IT shares in focus; Wipro, Coforge, Mindtree, Mphasis hit new highs

Shares of information technology (IT) companies were in focus at the bourses, on Thursday, with Coforge rallying 18 per cent to Rs 3,399.85, also its new high, on the BSE after the company reported a healthy set of numbers for the quarter ended March 2021 (Q4FY21).

 

Besides, Coforge, Wipro, Mindtree, Mpahsis and Firstsource Solutions hit their respective record highs on the BSE. Mastek, Intellect Design Arena, Sasken Technologies, Newgen Software Technologies, Nucleus Software Services and Sonata Software were up in the range of 5 per cent to 11 per cent. READ MORE

2:13 PM

Covid bringing renewed challenges for India; GDP growth seen at 9.5%: Fitch

The spiralling crisis from resurgence of COVID-19 cases in India has dented support for the ruling BJP but voter support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party will remain strong over the coming quarters and through this humanitarian crisis, Fitch Solutions said Thursday. The sudden and steep surge in the number of coronavirus cases the highest-ever 4,12,262 new infections and a record 3,980 daily death toll in a day has swamped the health system, which seemed to have collapsed. READ MORE

2:07 PM

European markets check

(Source: Reuters)

2:02 PM

Sensex heat map

2:01 PM

Markets at 2pm