Sensex, Nifty hover in range; broader market underperforms

The equity indices traded in a narrow range with modest gains in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 179.5 points or 0.35% at 50,793.04. The Nifty 50 index gained 0.3% to 14,940.

The Sensex scaled record high of 51,073.27 while the Nifty hit record high of 15,014.65 level in early trade.

The broader market witnessed profit selling. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.78% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.17%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1294 shares rose and 1588 shares fell. A total of 159 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 104,838,939 with 2,281,731 deaths. India reported 151,460 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 154,823 deaths while 104,96,308 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

RBI MPC Outcome:

The meeting of the six-member Monetary Policy Committee headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das concluded this morning. The committee has kept the interest rates unchanged, maintaining repo rate at 4% and the reverse repo rate at 3.35%.

The MPC decided to continue with an accommodative stance of monetary policy as long as necessary, at least through the current financial year and into next year to revive growth on a durable basis and mitigate the impact of Covid-19, Das said.

Inflation has been better than what was expected in December meeting and eased below tolerance level of 6%. The RBI projected GDP growth of 10.5% in FY22 for India while projection for CPI-based inflation was revised to 5.2% for Q4FY21.

The RBI had last revised its policy rate on 22 May 2020 to perk up demand by cutting interest rate to a historic low. The latest Economic Survey said that there are expectations of a rebound of the economy with a 11% growth in the next fiscal.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Media index lost 4.54% to 1719.45, snapping its four day winning run. The index came under profit booking after rising 9.16% in four days.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (down 13.57%), DB Corp (down 6.08%), TV Today (down 2.43%), TV18 Broadcast (down 1.79%), Dish TV (down 1.61%) and Jagran Prakashan (down 1.14%) were top losers in media space.

Earnings Impact:

Cadila Healthcare reported 41% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 527.2 crore on a 6.2% rise in net sales to Rs 3,753.70 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20. EBIDTA during the quarter improved by 16% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 807 crore. Profit before tax in Q3 December 2020 stood at Rs 627.2 crore, up by 37.2% from Rs 457.1 crore in Q3 December 2019. US formulations business registered revenues of Rs 1,603 crore during the quarter. The company filed 10 additional ANDAs with the USFDA taking the cumulative number of filings to 410 and received 9 new product approvals (including 4 tentative approvals) from the USFDA.

Dalmia Bharat fell 1.28%. The cement maker reported a net profit of Rs 182 crore in Q3 FY21, up 658.33% against net profit of Rs 24 crore in Q3 FY20. Net sales during the quarter increased 18.2% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 2857 crore. Sales volume rose by 13.7% to 5.80 million tonnes in Q3 FY21 from 5.10 million tonnes in Q3 FY20. EBITDA rose 51.2% to Rs 691 crore in Q3 FY21 from Rs 457 crore in Q3 FY20. EBITDA per tonne improved 32.4% to Rs 1,172 in Q3 December 2020 from Rs 885 in Q3 December 2019.

Numbers to Track:

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee appreciated to 72.91 compared with its previous closing of 72.96.

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper rose to 6.116% from its previous closing of 6.074%.

MCX Gold futures for 5 April 2021 settlement rose 0.9% to Rs 47,135.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, fell 0.16% to 91.41.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for April 2021 settlement added 54 cents to $59.38 a barrel. The contract surged 0.65% to settle at $58.84 in the previous trading session.

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