Sensex, Nifty hit day's high as IT shares rally

After a volatile start, the benchmark indices firmed up and hit the day's high in morning trade. At 10:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 340.73 points or 0.95% at 36,392.54. The Nifty 50 index added 82.45 points or 0.78% at 10,700.65.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was off 0.07% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.52%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On the BSE, 707 shares rose and 1334 shares fell. A total of 110 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India's exports declined by 12.41% to $21.91 billion in June mainly due to drop in shipments of petroleum, textiles, engineering goods, and gems and jewellery items. Imports too plunged 47.59% to $21.11 billion in June, leaving a trade surplus of $0.79 billion, compared to a deficit of $15.28 billion in the same month of the last year, according to the data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on Wednesday.

 

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index rose 5.27% to 17,328. The index is up 10.79% in two sessions while the benchmark Nifty 50 index has gained 0.61% during the same period.

Mphasis (up 9.35%), Larsen & Toubro Infotech (up 5.90%), HCL Tech (up 3.90%), TCS (up 3%), MindTree (up 2.75%), Tech Mahindra (up 1.74%), Wipro (up 1.20%) and Info Edge India (up 0.85%) while NIIT Technologies declined 1.16%.

Infosys jumped 14.17% to Rs 949.25 after consolidated net profit fell 2% to Rs 4,233 crore on 1.7% rise in revenues to Rs 23,665 crore in Q1 June 2020 (Q1FY21) over Q4 March 2020 (Q4FY20). Operating profit jumped 8.9% to 5,365 crore in Q1FY21 over Q4FY20. Operating margin stood at 22.7% in Q1FY21, higher than 21.2% in Q4FY20.

For FY21, the company forecast a revenue growth in the range of 0%-2% in constant currency terms. Operating margin for FY21 is expected to be in the range of 21%-23%.

Stocks in Spotlight:

State Bank of India was up 0.22% to Rs 184.25. The bank's board approved raising fresh additional Tier I (AT 1) capital up to an amount of Rs 4000 crore subject to GoI concurrence. Furthermore, the bank said it will raise fresh capital of upto Rs 10,000 crore through Tier 2 capital.

IDBI Bank fell 1.75% to Rs 39.20, reversing most of the gains acquired in the previous trading session. The stock rose 1.92% on Wednesday.

The bank said that it will raise up to Rs 11,000 crore equity capital through various modes in about a year to strengthen its capital base. The bank will seek approval from shareholders for the fund-raising proposal at its upcoming annual general meeting (AGM) scheduled on 17 August 2020.

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