Sensex, Nifty hold firm near day's high

Key domestic benchmarks continued to trade near the day's high in mid-afternoon trade. Sentiment improved on hopes that major central banks would take steps to stabilise financial markets amid the coronavirus epidemic.

At 14:26 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 607.86 points or 1.59% at 38,905.15. The Nifty 50 index was up 174.25 points or 1.56% at 11,376.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.32% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.54%.

The market breadth was titled in favour of bulls. On the BSE, 1474 shares rose and 872 shares fell. A total of 142 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 42 stocks advanced while 8 stocks declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Indiabulls Housing Finance jumped 9.89% to Rs 307.35 after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in an affidavit to the court said that the company has not violated any law in its lending business. In a regulatory filing, the company said the RBI affidavit has highlighted the details of loans taken by the borrowers mentioned in PIL and the repayment dates of such loans, the RBI affidavit has mentioned no violations of any nature or kind regarding Indiabulls Housing Finance. The RBI affidavit stated The Writ Petition is not maintainable either on facts or law as against this Respondent, the Reserve Bank of India, and hence liable to be dismissed as such.

Eicher Motors surged 6.53% to Rs 17690.The company on Monday, 2 March 2020, said its total two-wheeler (Royal Enfield) sales rose 1% to 63,536 units in February 2020 as against 62,630 units in February 2019. Total two-wheeler exports fell 8% to 2,348 units in February 2020 compared with 2,564 units in February 2019. Eicher Motors stated that the coronavirus outbreak had minimal impact on the production of motorcycles during the month of February. Some of the company's supply partners have dependencies on the manufacturers in China for sourcing of certain specific components. The company is making all efforts for maintaining continued supplies of these components.

NMDC rose 1.37% to Rs 92.65.The iron ore miner's total iron ore production in February 2020 was 3.24 million tonnes as against 3.34 million tonnes in February 2019, recording a fall of 2.99%. On a sequential basis, NMDC reported 2.11% fall in iron ore production from 3.31 million tonne reported in January 2020. Total iron ore sales declined 17.8% to 2.91 million tonnes in February 2020 as against 3.54 million tonnes in February 2019. On a sequential basis, total sales declined 1.69% in February 2020 as against January 2019.

Numbers to Track:

In the foreign exchange market, the rupee appreciated against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 72.05, compared with its previous closing low of 72.24.

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper fell to 6.354% at 14:18 IST compared with 6.371% in the previous trading session.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for April 2020 settlement was up $1.95 to $51.62 a barrel. The contract fell $1.66 or 3.18% to settle at $50.52 a barrel in the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 3 April 2020 settlement rose 1.11% to Rs 41,855 as investors rushed to safe haven counters following a rapid spread of coronavirus cases throughout the world.

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