Sensex, Nifty hit day's high; VIX below 22 mark

The domestic equity benchmarks surged to hit fresh intraday high in morning trade. The Nifty was trading just shy of the 14,500 mark. Metals and auto shares rallied while pharma shares corrected.

At 10:22 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 592.61 points or 1.22% to 49,032.73. The Nifty 50 index added 170.60 points or 1.19% to 14,495.50.

Meanwhile, the NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, slumped 4.19% to 21.75.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 1.24% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.05%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1628 shares rose and 767 shares fell. A total of 157 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 125,431,910 with 2,754,935 deaths. India reported 421,066 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 160,949 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

India recorded its highest single-day Covid count in over five months on Thursday with 59,118 people testing positive for the virus.

Economy:

The Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday reiterated that RBI is fully committed to use all policy tools to secure a robust recovery of the economy from the debilitating effects of the pandemic. He was speaking at the Economic conclave organised by a private media house. He said that the collective endeavour resulted in stabilisation of the financial sector and provided necessary liquidity support to maintain the flow of credit in the economy.

Das said India is on the way to becoming Asia's top financial technology hub with 87% FinTech adoption rate as against the global average of 64%. At present NEFT and RTGS systems are working 24x7 and India is among a few countries that provide the facility to transfer any amount at any point of time.

Supreme Court Judgement:

Tata Group and Shapoorji Pallonji stocks will be in focus. The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Friday its judgement on the cross appeals filed by Tata Sons and Cyrus Investments against the NCLAT order which had restored Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of the over $100 billion salt-to-software Tata conglomerate.

The Supreme Court's decision will also impact Mistry's shareholding as late last year Mistry decided to part ways with the Tata Group and proposed a separation plan. The plan was rejected by Tata lawyers in court.

The Shapoorji Pallonji Group held 18.47% stake in Tata Sons, the main holding company of the Tata Group. 66% of Tata Sons is owned by Tata Trusts, currently controlled by Ratan Tata, the group's former chairman.

Among the Tata Group stocks, Tata Motors (up 3.01%), Voltas (up 2.79%), Tata Steel (up 2.55%), Tata Coffee (up 2.32%), Tata Power Company (up 2.08%), Tata Communications (up 1.77%), Tata Metaliks (up 1.49%), Titan Company (up 1.37%), Tata Chemicals (up 1.29%), Tata Elxsi (up 0.85%) and Tata Consumer Products (up 0.41%) advanced.

Among the Shapoorji Pallonji Group companies, Sterling and Wilson Solar (up 2.84%) and Forbes & Company (up 2.36%) edged higher.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Realty index rose 1.72% to 328.70. The index declined 5.37% in the past two sessions.

Sunteck Realty (up 4.34%), Indiabulls RE (up 4.05%), Godrej Properties (up 3.45%), Sobha Developers (up 2.89%), DLF (up 1.61%) and Oberoi Realty (up 0.79%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

H.G. Infra Engineering jumped 4.34% to Rs 292.30 after the company was declared as L-1 (lowest) bidder by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for a road project in Andhra Pradesh, the cost of which is Rs 1,060.11 crore.

Adani Enterprises added 0.82% to Rs 989.60. The company announced its entry into the copper business by incorporating a wholly-owned subsidiary, Kutch Copper (KCL).

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