The broader market advanced for the fifth day in a row. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.57% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 1.41%.
Buyers outnumbered sellers. On the BSE, 1830 shares rose and 980 shares fell. A total of 166 shares were unchanged.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 268.46 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 672.23 crore in the Indian equity market on 20 August, provisional data showed.
COVID-19 Update:
Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 2,26,83,235 with 7,93,763 deaths. India reported 6,92,028 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 54,849 deaths while 21,58,946 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
Index Rejig:
Divis Laboratories (up 1.55%) and SBI Life Insurance (up 1.2%) will replace Bharti Infratel (down 1%) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises (down 3.8%) in benchmark Nifty 50 index from 25 September 2020.
Results Today:
Rossari Biotech was up 3.48% ahead of its first quarterly earnings post listing on 23 July 2020.
Indiabulls Housing Finance (down 0.22%), Punjab National Bank (up 1.28%), Oil India (down 0.3%) and Union Bank of India (up 1.84%) are some of the companies that will announce their results today.
Stocks in Spotlight:
ICICI Bank rose 0.07%. The private lender will acquire 4.46 crore equity shares of India International Exchange (India INX) at Re 1 each. Post deal, ICICI Bank's stake would increase from 7.7% to 9.9%, according to a regulatory filing issued during market hours today, 21 August 2020. The acquisition will be completed by 31 August 2020.
GMM Pfaudler jumped 4.55%. The company announced the signing of definitive agreements to acquire a majority stake in the global business of its parent, the Pfaudler Group from the private equity firm Deutsche Beteiligungs AG Fund VI (DBAG). As per the agreements, GMM (directly and through its subsidiary Mavag AG) and the Patel family will acquire, a 54% and 26% equity stake respectively in the Pfaudler Group. DBAG will continue to retain the balance 20% stake. The consideration for the 54% stake acquired by GMM, which is expected to be around $27.4 million, will be funded by the company through a mix of internal accruals and debt. Pursuant to the acquisition, GMM shall become the ultimate holding company with the entire business of Pfaudler being consolidated into the company. The company will have a consolidated revenue of Rs 2,000 crore and EBITDA of approximately Rs 250 crore.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) fell 0.31%. The Government of India (GoI) announced plan to pare its stake in the company. As on 30 June 2020, GoI held 87.40% stake in IRCTC. To meet Sebi's public holding norm, the government has to lower its stake in the company to 75%.
Premier Explosives hit an upper circuit of 5% at Rs 135.85 after the company said it received an order worth Rs 3.90 crore from Israel Aerospace Industries. The company will develop and supply EDRM Rocket Motors. The order is to be delivered within nine months.
Kolte-Patil Developers fell 2.15% to Rs 173 after the company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 26.98 crore in Q1 FY21 as against a net profit of Rs 115.9 crore in Q1 FY20. Revenue from operations slumped 75.96% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 140.8 crore during the quarter. The company reported an EBITDA loss of Rs 12.5 crore with a negative EBITDA margin of 8.9% in Q1 June 2020. It had reported an EBITDA of Rs 195.1 crore with an EBITDA margin of 33.3% in Q1 June 2019.
MOIL fell 0.29%. The state-owned mining corporation reported 97.93% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 1.88 crore on 45.86% fall in net sales to Rs 178.05 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. Consolidated profit before tax (PBT) dropped 98.5% to Rs 2.12 crore in Q1 June 2020 as against Rs 140.10 crore in Q1 June 2019. Profit was weighed adversely by exceptional items of Rs 50 crore which included contribution towards PM Cares Fund and CM Relief Fund. The state-owned company said that the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown protocols have led to severe disruptions, affecting both the turnover and the profit during current reporting period.
Indian Overseas Bank advanced 2.36% after the bank posted net profit of Rs 120.69 crore in Q1 June 2020 as compared with net loss of Rs 342.08 crore in Q1 June 2019. Total income rose 4.5% to Rs 5,233.63 crore in Q1 June 2020 over Q1 June 2019. The bank's provisions and contingencies dropped 16.26% to Rs 969.52 crore in Q1 FY21 over Rs 1,157.82 crore in Q1FY20. Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) improved to 87.97% as on 30 June 2020 as against 72.24% as on 30 June 2019.
Global Markets:
Shares in Europe and Asia advanced on Friday after a tech-driven rally on Wall Street. In a media release announcing the quarterly results, Alibaba Group Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu said the firm's "domestic core commerce business has fully recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels across the board."
In Europe, the minutes from the last meeting of the European Central Bank showed that policymakers debated the flexibility of the landmark Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme.
In US, Nasdaq ended at a record high on Thursday, with the S&P 500 and Dow also rising, as gains in heavyweight tech stocks outweighed downbeat data that affirmed the Federal Reserve's view of a difficult road to economic recovery.
Gains in Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp underpinned a rally in Wall Street's three main indexes as investors bet the tech giants would ride out the economic crisis. Tesla Inc. shares gained more than 6% on Thursday to end at a record $2,001.83 and setting an intraday record of $2,021.99.
The Trump administration on Thursday reportedly declined to acknowledge any plans to meet with China over the Phase 1 trade deal after the commerce ministry in Beijing said bilateral talks would be held in the coming days to evaluate the agreement's progress.
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