Indices open firm

After falling for four consecutive days, local stocks opened higher taking cues from Asian peers. At 9:23 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 496.42 points or 1.75% at 28,784.65. The Nifty 50 index was up 167.05 points or 2.02% at 8,430.50.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 2.59%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 2.15%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 866 shares rose and 376 shares fell. A total of 38 shares were unchanged.

Stocks in news:

Hero MotoCorp rose 0.55%. Hero MotoCorp has commenced commercial production at its new greenfield manufacturing facility, situated at Chittoor in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. This facility is the company's eighth manufacturing plant and sixth in India.

State Bank of India was up 2.40%. State Bank of India informed that a meeting of the central board of the bank will be held on 27 March 2020 to consider the extension of approval accorded by central board for raising equity capital from market up to Rs 20,000 crore from the market till 31 March, 2021 subject to the approval of shareholders, RBI and Gol.

The board of the bank also approved divestment of entire equity stake (19.99%) held in A Little World.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries jumped 4.55%. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries informed that the company has approved the buy-back of its equity shares of face value of Re 1 each from the open market at a maximum price of Rs 425 per equity share for an aggregate maximum amount of up to Rs 1,700 crore.

ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company fell 1.81%. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company said it has rolled out a focused 'COVID-19 Protection Cover'. The policy has been launched in group insurance mode. Amid the contagious pandemic, this policy on diagnosis of COVID-19 (+ve) will pay 100% of the sum insured irrespective of hospitalization expenses.

CreditAccess Grameen gained 3.31%. CreditAccess Grameen informed that its has completed the acquisition of 75.64% of equity share capital of Madura Micro Finance on 18 March 2020.

Sobha was up 1.22%. Sobha informed that the board of directors approved the issue of secured redeemable non convertible debentures up to an amount of Rs 270 crore by way of private placement.

Global Markets:

Overseas, most Asian markets were trading higher on Thursday following the overnight rebound in the US and European markets, as massive relief packages announced by global central banks and governments to ease the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic boosted investor sentiment.

In US, stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday, in another volatile session, as central banks and governments pledged support for the economic shocks from the coronavirus pandemic.

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