Sensex, Nifty march ahead; PSU banks under pressure

Key benchmark indices hit fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade, boosted by media reports that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is expected to take a call on a fresh stimulus package for India Inc. soon. Cabinet Briefing by Union Minister Prakash Javdekar is scheduled at 3 pm today.

At 14:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 664.08 points or 2.17% at 31,300.79. The Nifty 50 index was up 173 points or 1.93% at 9,154.45.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index, both advanced 0.34%.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1122 shares rose and 1132 shares fell. A total of 165 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index the breadth was positive, 35 stocks advanced while 15 stocks declined.

Numbers to Track:

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee edged higher to 76.68 compared with its previous closing of 76.8350.

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper rose to 6.224% as compared with 6.212% in the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 5 June 2020 settlement rose 1.63% to Rs 46066.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for June 2020 settlement was down $2.05 to $17.28 a barrel. The contract fell $6.24 or 24.40% to settle at $19.33 a barrel in the previous trading session.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty PSU Bank index slipped 1.60% to 1,296.10, extending decline for second day. The index has lost 4.29% in two days.

Central Bank of India (down 4.99%), Indian Bank (down 3.36%), Canara Bank (down 2.43%), Bank of Baroda (down 1.65%), Bank of India (down 1.43%), Andhra Bank (down 1.42%), Bank of Maharashtra (down 0.51%), Punjab & Sind Bank (down 0.49%) and Punjab National Bank (down 0.32%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Amara Raja Batteries (Up 9.67%), Colgate-Palmolive (India) (up 7.14%), KIOCL (up 5%), Future Retail (up 5%) and Max Financial Services (up 4.97%) were top mid-cap gainers.

Albert David (up 20%), Hathway Cable & Datacom (up 20%), TV18 Broadcast (up 17.25%), Balaji Amines (up 14.88%) and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (up 12.96%) were top small-cap gainers.

NIIT rallied 8.61% to Rs 87.65. NIIT (USA) Inc., USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NIIT, has signed a managed services agreement with a US-based EdTech company to provide virtual services to education providers. The term of the agreement is 5 years. Both companies see this as a significant partnership where two market leaders go-to-market jointly to provide innovative solutions in the testing and certification marketplace.

Tejas Networks hit a lower circuit limit of 5% at Rs 40.70 after the company reported consolidated net loss of Rs 126.53 crore in Q4 March 2020 compared with net profit of Rs 35.89 crore in Q4 March 2019. Consolidated net sales tumbled 80.02% to Rs 54.57 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.

The weak revenue during Q4 was primarily because of operational challenges and inability to ship confirmed customer orders because of lockdown due to COVID-19 and pushout of new customer orders, which were otherwise expected. The company also reassessed the marketability of its intangible assets under development as well as capitalized intangible assets, and has taken a one-time impairment charge of Rs 69.87 crore towards the accumulated costs relating to past Research & Development (R&D).

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