Indices at day's high; breadth strong

Key benchmark indices extended early gains and hit the day's high in morning trade. Value buying emerged after a heavy selling in the previous trading session. The Nifty marched towards the 14,800 mark. All the sectoral indices on the NSE traded in the green.

At 10:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 834 points or 1.7% at 49,934.67. The Nifty 50 index was up 244.55 points or 1.68% at 14,773.30.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.15% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.43%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1889 shares rose and 687 shares fell. A total of 159 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) stood at 57.5 in February 2021, highlighting a strong improvement in operating conditions that was broadly similar to that recorded in January (57.7). The headline figure remained above its long-run average of 53.6.

India's economy returned to growth in its fiscal third quarter after a recession earlier in 2020. Gross domestic product grew 0.4% in October-December compared with the same period a year earlier, data released by the National Statistics Office on Friday showed. That compared with revised contractions of 7.3% in July-September and 24.4% in April-June.

The output of eight core infrastructure sectors grew marginally by 0.1% in January, mainly due to growth in the production of fertiliser, steel and electricity. The core sectors had expanded by 2.2% in January 2020, according to the provisional data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on Friday.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 114,051,765 with 25,30,563 deaths. India reported 168,627 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 157,157 deaths while 107,86,457 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index surged 1.66% to 24,704.30 on bargain hunting after tumbling 2.3% in previous trading session.

Tech Mahindra (up 3.2%), HCL Tech (up 2.19%), TCS (up 2.06%), Infosys (up 1.65%), Wipro (up 1.27%), Info Edge (up 0.95%) and Coforge (up 0.43%) were top gainers in IT segment.

Stocks in Spotlight:

KEC International advanced 2.92% after the EPC company bagged new orders of Rs 1,140 crore across its various businesses.

Biocon gained 0.63%. Biocon Biologics, a subsidiary of Biocon, announced that the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has adopted a positive opinion recommending the marketing authorization of their biosimilar Bevacizumab, co-developed with Viatris, to be marketed as Abevmy (injection bevacizumab 100 mg and 400 mg).

Abevmy is a biosimilar to Roche's Avastin, prescribed for all indications including metastatic colorectal carcinoma, metastatic breast cancer, non-small-cell lung carcinoma, glioblastoma, ovarian, cervical and renal cancer as part of a specific regimen.

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