Indices at day's high; IT stocks in demand

Benchmark indices were trading at day's high with decent gains in morning trade. The Nifty ascended towards 14,600 mark. IT and pharma stocks were in demand while banks and financial shares corrected.

At 10:29 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 180.53 points or 0.36% at 49,578.82. The Nifty 50 index was up 65.8 points or 0.45% at 14,586.05.

In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.74% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.62%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1534 shares rose and 951 shares fell. A total of 150 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 96,142,794 with 2,056,241 deaths. India reported 1,97,201 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,52,718 deaths while 1,02,45,741 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Results Today:

Bajaj Finance (down 0.98%) and Bajaj Finserv (down 0.16%) will announce their quarterly result today.

Federal Bank (down 0.53%), Hindustan Zinc (up 3%), Havells India (down 0.51%), L&T Technology Services (up 2.79%), Phillips Carbon Black (down 0.08%), Sagar Cements (down 0.04%), GMM Pfaudler (up 3.15%), Agro Tech Foods (up 0.67%), Sterlite Technologies (up 0.78%), Syngene International (up 2.24%), Tinplate Company of India (up 0.98%) and VST Industries (up 0.63%) will also announce Q3 results today.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index jumped 2.65% to 26,733.90. The index has rallied 3.15% in two days.

Info Edge (up 5.53%), Coforge (up 4.25%), Mindtree (up 3.49%), Wipro (up 3.34%), Mphasis (up 3.3%), Tech Mahindra (up 2.85%), HCL Tech (up 2.49%), Infosys (up 2.31%) and TCS (up 1.78%) were top gainers in IT segment.

Earnings Impact:

ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company reported 6.6% rise in net profit to Rs 313.53 crore on a 9.7% rise in total income to Rs 3,198.87 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20. Profit before tax in Q3 December 2020 stood at Rs 418.23 crore, up by 7.3% from Rs 389.92 crore in Q3 December 2019. Current tax expenses during the quarter increased by 9.3% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 104.70 crore. Capital gains increased 6.35 times to Rs 108 crore in Q3 FY2021 from Rs 17 crore in Q3 FY2020. Gross Direct Premium Income (GDPI) of the company increased to Rs 4,034 crore in Q3 FY2021 compared to Rs 3,693 crore in Q3 FY2020, registering a growth of 9.2%. The industry growth for Q3 FY2021 was 4.9%. Combined ratio improved to 97.9% in Q3 FY2021 compared to 98.7% in Q3 FY2020. The general insurer's return on average equity (ROAE) was 17.6% in the third quarter compared to 20.3% in the same period last year while the Solvency ratio was 2.76x as on 31 December 2020 as against 2.74x on 30 September 2020.

Network18 Media & Investments rose 1.56% to Rs 38.95 after consolidated net profit surged 124.8% to Rs 333.38 crore on 3.5% decrease in net sales to Rs 1,422.45 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019. Consolidated Q3 PAT received a major boost on improved performance, lower finance costs & tax reversals. Consolidated profit before tax (PBT) jumped 36.5% to Rs 252.60 crore in Q3 December 2020 as against Rs 185 crore in Q3 December 2019. Tax rebate for the quarter stood at Rs 99.38 crore as against a tax expenditure of Rs 36.71 crore paid in Q3 December 2019. The Q3 result was declared post trading hours yesterday, 19 January 2021.

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