MARKETS: Sensex up 400 points, Nifty tops 17,300; Financials shine

Markets at 10 am

LIVE market updates: The frontline indices continued to extend their opening gains. Index heavyweights Reliance, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel along with financial stiocks were supporting the up move. The BSE Sensex was over 400 points higher at 58,262 and the NSE Nifty was at 17,345, up 140 points.

Among laggards on the Sensex were IT majors Infosys, Wipro, and HCL Technologies, trading up to 0.5 per cent lower. PowerGrid, NTPC and Tech Mahindra were the other losers. On the Nifty, ONGC and Cipla were the additonal losers.

IDFC Ltd was trading nearly 8 per cent higher on the BSE after IDFC First Bank approved a proposal to merge itself with the former and IDFC Financial Holding Company(promoter group).

New listing: Shares of CMS Info Systems made a tepid market debut getting listed at Rs 220 per share on the NSE, nearly 2 per cent premium over the issue price of Rs 216 a piece. On the BSE, the stock opened at Rs 218.5 per share.


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Opening Bell

LIVE market updates: The benchmark indices had a positive start on Friday after four days of muted action and rallied up to 0.6 per cent. The BSE Sensex crossed the 58,000 mark and was at 58,131, up over 300 points, while the NSE Nifty was up nearly 100 points at 17,300.

The broader markets were also in the green. The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were 0.7and 0.9 per cent higher, respectively.

Among the Sensex-30 shares, Titan, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Ultratech Cement, Reliance, Bharti Airtel, M&M, ITC, HUL, were among the major gainers, up 0.6-2 per cent. On the Nifty, Hindalco (up 3.5 per cent), Tata Motors( up 1.8 per cent) and Grasim( up 1.4 per cent) were the additonal gainers.

Sectorally, Nifty Metal and Realty were the leading gainers, up over 1 per cent each. All bank indices also seemed to have bounced back, trading 1 per cent higher or more. IT and Pharma were largely flat.

F&O rollover update

Post heavy selloff in first half of the series, a sharp comeback from lows was seen on the Nifty from 16400 to back above 17,200 levels. Nifty/BankNifty finished series with losses of 1.9/6.2 per cent each.

Highlights for the December series were: a) FII’s continue to dump heavy in cash markets; b) BankNifty down around 20 per cent from three-month high, while Nifty IT at life high levels; c) India VIX ended near 16 mark as traders awaits earnings for next directional cues; d) BankNifty down over 5 per cent on back to back series to remain volatile.

Rollovers for Nifty/Bank‐Nifty stood at 78 per cent (1.04cr shrs)/84 per cent (24lakh shrs) vs 83 per cent (1.09cr shrs)/84 per cent (23.7lakh shrs) previous month, roll cost stood near 50 points for Nifty, Market wide rolls stood at 91 per centvs 94 per cent previous month.

Options volumes hint at comparatively lower trading band +/‐600 points from 17200 at the money (ATM) mark. We expect 17600 to 16700 as trading range for Nifty. Sector churn is key; IT stocks showing relative strength and banking stocks continue to drag.

(Source: YES Securities)

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Pre-open session

LIVE market updates: The benchmark indices were slightly in the green zone in the pre-open session. The BSE Sensex was

up 50 points at 57,849, while the NSE Nifty was 40 points higher at 17,244.

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LIVE market updates: The benchmark indices are expected to extend their muted performance on the last day of the year given tepid global market cues.

As of 07:40 AM, the SGX Nifty January futures were quoted at 17,306, indicating a likely opening gain of 40-odd points for the NSE Nifty.

Among individual shares, textile stocks are likely to be in focus as the GST Council is scheduled to meet today to discuss possible roll-back of the hike in GST rates for the sector.

IndiGo too may be eyed after its shareholders voted strongly in favour of scrapping a clause in the articles of association (AoA) that gives the airline’s two promoters a right of first refusal (RoFR) over the acquisition of each other’s shares. READ MORE

IDFC First Bank may be looked out for as it has approved a proposal for merger of ‘IDFC Ltd’ and ‘IDFC Financial Holding Company (Promoter Group) with itself.

New listing

CMS Info Systems will make its debut on the bourses. The IPO was subscribed 1.95 times, hence the stock may see a tepid listing.

Global cues

In the US, Dow Jones and the S&P 500 indexes hit record highs in intraday trades as a dip in weekly jobless allayed fears over the economic damage from the Omicron variant. The key benchmark indices eventually ended marginally in red. Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were around 0.2-0.3 per cent each.

Oil prices rose edged slightly higher in trades on Thursday with focus now shifting on the OPEC+ meeting on January 04. Brent Crude added 0.1 per cent to $79.32 a barrel, and WTI Crude was up 0.6 per cent to $76.90 a barrel.

Most of the Asian markets were closed for trading owing to the New Year’s eve holiday. Among those open, Hang Seng had surged 1.9 per cent. Shanghai Composite was up 0.4 per cent and Straits Times had added 0.3 per cent.