Benchmarks at day's high; breadth strong

The key equity indices reversed early losses and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade. The Nifty was currently trading above the 14,650 mark. Metal shares extended gains for the third day.

At 10:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 186.26 points or 0.38% to 48,989.94. The Nifty 50 index added 80.05 points or 0.55% to 14,661.50.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.22% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 1.29%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1675 shares rose and 745 shares fell. A total of 114 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India's merchandise exports rose 60.3% at $34.5 billion in March as compared to the same month last year, while country's imports jumped 54% to $48.4 billion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry data showed.

During the 2020-21 financial year, India's overall Merchandise and Services exports dipped 6.6% to $493.2 billion over the same period last year. Overall imports in April-March 2020-21 declined 16.5% to $505.9 billion.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 138,851,279 with 2,984,413 deaths.

India reported 1,569,743 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 174,308 deaths while 12,547,866 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.]

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Metal index gained 0.87% to 4,435.85, rising for third consecutive trading session. The index has rallied 5.7% in three trading sessions.

NMDC (up 1.63%), Hindustan Zinc (up 1.61%), National Aluminium Company (up 1.47%), Vedanta (up 1.46%), Steel Authority of India (up 0.97%) Jindal Steel & Power (up 0.66%) and Tata Steel (up 0.31%) were top gainers in metal space.

Earnings Impact:

Wipro jumped 7.98% after the IT major's consolidated net profit grew 27.78% to Rs 2,972.30 crore while revenue increased 3.4% to Rs 16245.40 crore in Q4 FY21 over Q4 FY20. The IT major's consolidated net profit rose 0.14% and its revenue climbed 3.67% in Q4 FY21 over Q3 FY21. Profit before tax (PBT) declined by 2.6% on quarter-on-quarter basis and it rose by 26.44% on year-on-year basis to Rs 3749.90 crore in Q4 FY21. Wipro expects revenue from its IT services business to be in the range of $2,195 million to $2,238 million for the quarter ending 30 June 2021. This translates to a sequential growth of 2% to 4%. The company added 52 new customers in the quarter ending 31 March 2021. The IT major's attrition rate (on TTM basis) stood at 12.1% in Q4 FY21 as against 11% in Q3 FY21 and 14.7% in Q4 FY20.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Ashoka Buildcon jumped 7.53% to Rs 95.65 after the company received a Letter of Award (LOA) from Gujarat Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation. The received LOA is for gauge conversion of Bechraji to Ranuj section to broad gauge with 25 KV AC electrification in Ahmedabad Division of Western Railway. The company announced that the accepted project cost is Rs 333.625 crore and has a total length of 38.153 kilometer.

Quess Corp rose 1.43%. The company announced the acquisition of 30% stake in Conneqt Business Solutions Ltd. (Conneqt) pursuant to the Put Option notice by Tata Sons. With this transaction, Conneqt will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Quess. Conneqt is India's second largest domestic CLM and BPM player delivering unparalleled customer experience to 120+ clients in India, US, UK and Middle East. Quess had acquired 51% of Conneqt in November 2017 and further increased its stake in Conneqt from 51% to 70% in May 2019 via infusion of primary capital, which was used to fund the acquisition of Allsec Technologies (Allsec), a listed CLM and HRO services provider.

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