Sensex, Nifty pare gains; PSU banks extend gains

Key equity barometers pared gains in mid-afternoon trade. The Nifty continued to trade below the 11,600 mark. Trading was volatile as traders roll over positions in the F&O segment from the near month August 2020 series to September 2020 series.

At 14:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 85.35 points or 0.22% at 39,159.27. The Nifty 50 index gained 29.05 points or 0.25% at 11,578.65.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.04% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.46%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1379 shares rose and 1408 shares fell. A total of 158 shares were unchanged.

Numbers to Track:

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper rose to 6.147% compared with previous closing of 6.203% in the previous trading session.

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee edged higher to 73.82 compared with its previous closing 74.30.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for October 2020 settlement rose 8 cents to $45.72 a barrel. The contract rose 0.48% or 22 cents to end at $ 45.64 in the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 October 2020 settlement slipped 0.62% to Rs 51,460.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty PSU Bank index rose 1.28% to 1,530.45, extending gains for fifth day. The index has added 5% in five sessions.

Jammu and Kashmir Bank (up 5.51%), Bank of India (up 2.58%), SBI (up 2.41%), Punjab National Bank (up 0.99%) and Central Bank of India (up 0.85%) were the top index gainers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) slumped 13.63% to Rs 1017.20 as the offer for sale (OFS) opened for non-retail investors today. Through the OFS, the government proposes to sell 3,34,38,750 equity shares, constituting 10% paid-up share capital of the company, with an option to sell an additional 5% stake or 1,67,19,375 equity shares (oversubscription option). The floor price for the OFS was set at Rs 1,001 each, a 15% discount to HAL's closing price of Rs 1177.75 on Wednesday.

The OFS opened on Thursday (27 August) for non-retail investors, while both retail as well as non-retail investors will be able to subscribe on Friday (28 August). A total of 20% of the offer size will be reserved for retail investors, and they will be allocated offer shares at a discount of 5% to the cut-off price in accordance with the OFS guidelines. As on 14:05 IST, the OFS received subscription for 2.38 crore shares or 89.15% against the base non-retail offer size of 2.67 crore shares.

Avanti Feeds rose 0.89% to Rs 563.80. The fish feed maker's consolidated net profit rose 14.33% to Rs 115.99 crore on 12.62% drop in revenue from operations to Rs 955.40 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. Profit before tax (PBT) rose 1.20% to Rs 147.01 crore in Q1 FY21 over Q1 FY20.

Siemens shed 0.88% to Rs 1,220.75. The board of Siemens has approved the sale of its mechanical drives (MD) business for Rs 440 crore to Flender Drives, a subsidiary of Flender GmbH, which in turn is a subsidiary of Siemens AG. The sale and transfer of MD business is as going concern and on a slump sale basis, with effect from 1 January 2021. The MD business within Siemens achieved revenue of Rs 683.80 crore for FY19 and had an operating loss of Rs 55.30 crore.

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