Share Market Today: Sensex Closes Higher For First Time This Week; FPIs Stay Net Sellers

Overseas Investors in Indian equities remained net sellers for the fourth straight day on Thursday.

Foreign portfolio investors offloaded equities worth Rs 1,131.67 crore, according to data from the National Stock Exchange.

Domestic institutional investors turned net buyers and bought equities worth Rs 772.29 crore.

Institutions net bought Rs 2,794.5 crore worth of equities in December so far, and net sold Rs 12,657.39 crore worth of Indian equities till date in 2022.

Yield on the 10-year bond rose 2 bps to close at 7.28% on Thursday. It opened 3 bps lower at 7.24%.

Source: Bloomberg

The Indian rupee appreciated by four paise to close at 82.43 against the U.S. Dollar on Thursday.

The local currency had gained 19 paise to open at 82.29 before depreciating to an intraday low of 82.46.

The Indian benchmark started on a marginally positive note and continued the trading day by staying flat through Thursday.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended the day 160 points higher by 0.26% to 62,570.68. While, the NSE Nifty 50 was up 49 points or 0.26% at 18,609.35.

Out of the 50 stocks compiled by the NSE Nifty 50 index, 27 stocks advanced and 23 stocks declined.

Axis Bank Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Eicher Motors Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and Hindalco Industries Ltd. were the top gainers on the NSE Nifty 50 Index.

While Sun Pharma Ltd., Divi's Labs Ltd., Power Grip Corp of India Ltd., HDFC Life Insurance Co. and TCS Ltd. were the top laggards in the gauge.

The broader indices outperformed their larger peers with mid-cap and small cap gaining 0.43% and 0.32% respectively. While large-cap almost mirrored its larger peers, by gaining 0.27%

Twelve of the 20 sectoral indices compiled by BSE advanced, with S&P BSE Capital Goods, S&P BSE Industrials and S&P BSE Bankex gaining the most over 1%.

The market breadth is skewed in favour of the bulls. About 1,868 stocks rose, 1,625 fell, and 126 remained unchanged.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchanges

• Shenu Agarwal has been named chief executive officer of Ashok Leyland for five years, starting today.

• Agarwal joins Ashok Leyland from Escorts Kubota, where he was President.

Source: Exchange filing

Shares of Shakti Pumps India gained as much as 3.34% after it incorporated unit for electric vehicle business.

The stock went up as much as 3.34%, the most this week.

Its unit, Shakti Green Industries is engaged in manufacturing, trade, buy and sale of electric vehicle motors, charging stations, electric control panels, variable frequency drives, IoT based electric control panel and controllers.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchange filing

• Company says that they have submitted a resolution plan in the insolvency process of Karaikal Port Pvt.

• Adani Ports clarified that the said process is underway, and no conclusion has been reached yet.

• Once the successful bidder is announced, the plan will be subject to approval from the National Company Law Tribunal.

Source: Exchanges

• Trent signed a definitive agreement with Tata Industries, Tata Unistore and Tata Digital to offload some stake.

• Trent will divest about 3.22% stake held in Tata Unistore to Tata Digital.

• The shares will be sold for Rs 24.14 crore.

• The shares of Trent Ltd. declined by 0.55% in trade as of 2:28 pm on Thursday.

• About 83% of analysts have changed their price targets on the stock over the past one month. Of the 18 analysts tracking the stock, 11 have maintained a 'buy' rating on the stock, three suggested 'hold' and four are of the view to 'sell' the stock.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchanges

• Targets to open 52 showrooms in 52 weeks in calendar year 2023.

• Plans to expand its retail footprint by over 30% through calendar year 2023.

• Expansion will mainly focus on the non-South region, which contributes 35% to India business.

• Lays emphasis on extending geographical footprint in Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets in the North, East and Western India.

• The shares of Kalyan Jewellers India Ltd. declined by 1.59% in trade as of 2:26 pm on Thursday.

• About 66% of analysts have changed their price targets on the stock over the past one month. Of the six analysts tracking the stock, all of them have maintained a 'buy' rating on the stock.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchanges

VA Tech Wabag Ltd. appointed Pankaj Malhan as deputy managing director and group chief executive officer, with effect from Dec. 7.

The shares of the company were up 1.40% in trade as of 1:32 pm on Thursday. The scrip was trading at 1.1 times its 30-day average volume.

About 28% of analysts have changed their price targets on the stock over the past one month. Of the three analysts tracking the stock, all three have maintained a 'buy' rating on the stock.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchanges

Shares of Bank of India Ltd. gained after Credit Suisse upgraded the bank to "outperform" on improving profitability and strong capital position.

The stock gained as much as 5.43% on Thursday- the most since Nov. 7, 2022. The total traded quantity is 2.9 times the 30-day average volume.

The relative strength index is 89, suggesting that it may be overbought.

Credit Suisse also raised the price target for Bank of India shares from Rs 42 to Rs 105.

Of the 3 analysts tracking the company, all maintain a 'buy' rating, according to Bloomberg data. The average 12-month consensus price target implies that the return potential of the stock is 6.5%.

Source: Bloomberg, Credit Suisse Report

The India benchmarks indices trimmed its losses to marginally rise and continues trading flat on Thursday.

As of 12:26 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex rose 37 points by 0.06% to 62,447.16. While, the NSE Nifty 50 opened 11 points higher, up by 0.06% to 18,571.65.

Out of the 50 stocks compiled by the Nifty 50 index, 26 stocks advanced and 24 stocks declined.

Sun Pharma Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., Power Grid Corp of India Ltd., HDFC Life Insurance Co. and Divi's Laboratories Ltd. were the top Nifty 50 laggards. While Axis Bank Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Eicher Motors Ltd., Hindalco Industries Ltd. and Larsen and Toubro Ltd. gained the most in the gauge.

The broader indices outperformed their larger peers, with the mid-cap and small-cap gauges losing 0.23% and 0.31%, respectively.

Twelve of the 20 sectoral indices compiled by BSE advanced with S&P BSE Capital Goods gaining the most than 0.78%.

The market breadth is skewed in favour of the bulls. About 1,902 stocks rose, 1,448 fell and 143 stocks remained unchanged.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchanges

NSE Nifty PSU Banks Index constituents Bank of India Ltd., Bank of Baroda Ltd., Central Bank Ltd., SBI Ltd., PNB Ltd., and others surged in trade on Thursday.

As of 11:58 am, Bank of India Ltd. was up 6.48%, Bank of Baroda Ltd. gained 5.67%, Central Bank Ltd. was up 5.15% in trade.

NSE Nifty PSU Banks Index surged for the sixth consecutive session on Thursday in trade. The index was up 3.11%.

Source: Exchanges

Sanjiv Bajaj, managing director and chairman of Bajaj Finserv.

• Government is responsive and proactive.

• Need to align industrial finance and trade policies.

• Require deeper, larger financial services to support real economy.

• Create capacity and take manufacturing to 20-25% of GDP.

• Combination of these factors will give India horsepower for next 10 years.

Uday Kotak, MD and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank

• First goal for India is to be part of the top 3 economies.

• We need to look at per capita GDP of 10,000 dollars.

Shares of Talbros Automotive Components Ltd. gained after the automotive company bagged an order worth Rs. 60 crore.

The stock gained as much as 16.32% on Thursday- the most since Jan. 5, 2022. The total traded quantity is 37.7 times the 30-day average.

The relative strength index is 72, suggesting that it may be overbought.

The company won order for heat shield business from a leading passenger vehicle OEM in India. This order will be executed over a period of next five years. "This order will help us increase our domestic market share which will help us grow in the coming years," the company said in a stock exchange filing.

The company has added orders worth Rs 880 crores during the current financial year across its business divisions, product segments and JVs.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchange filings

The shares of Eicher Motors Ltd. were up 1.26% in trade on Thursday as of 10:52 am. The scrip gained 2.5%, the most since Nov. 30.

Eicher Motors in an exchange filing on Dec. 7 announced that Royal Enfield has inaugurated a new CKD Facility in Brazil, making the new facility its third motorcycle assembly unit in the region and fourth across the world.

Eicher Motors Ltd. traded at 1.6 times its 30-day average volume.

About 70% of analysts have changed their price targets on the stock over the past one month. Of the 46 analysts tracking the stock, 31 have maintained a 'buy' rating on the stock, eight suggested 'hold' and seven have recommended to sell the stock.

The return potential of the stock implies an upside of 16.6% in the next 12 months.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchange filings

Shares of Gujarat Ambuja Exports Ltd. gained after the company inaugurated its maize processing greenfield project in the Indian state of West Bengal.

The project has a capacity of 1,200 tonnes per day.

The stock rose as much as 2.63% to Rs 261.25 apiece. Total traded quantity is 3.3 times the 30-day average.

The greenfield project is fully equipped with a captive power plant, effluent treatment plant and a maize storage capacity of 1,20,000 tonnes.

The trial production has commenced and the commercial production with full capacity utilisation will be achieved in the coming quarter.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchange filings

• USFDA lists Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited's Halol, Gujarat facility under Import Alert.

• Import Alert implies that all shipments from the facility will be subject to refusal by the US market till it becomes compliant with 'Current Good Manufacturing Practice' standards.

• USFDA has excluded 14 products from this import alert, subject to conditions.

• The Company in an exchange filing, said that it continues to cooperate with the USFDA.

• As per the BSE filing, the Halol facility's supply to the U.S. accounted for 3% of consolidated revenues in FY21.

• The shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd were down 2.22% in trade on Thursday, as of 10:24 am. The scrip traded at 5.1 times its 30-day average volumes.

• Of the 43 analysts tracking the stock, 41 maintained a 'buy' rating on the stock, two suggested 'hold' and one recommended to sell the stock.

  Source: Exchange filing

• Shares of Dharmaj Crop Guard listed at Rs 266 per share on the BSE, a premium of 12.24% to its IPO price of Rs 237.

• On the NSE, the stock listed at Rs 266.05, a 12.26% premium.

• Its IPO was subscribed 35.49 times.

Source: BSE, NSE

Lumax Industries Ltd. shares soared after its board agreed to set up a greenfield project in Maharashtra state.

The stock gained as much as 5.55%, the most since Nov. 22, to trade at Rs 1,955. Total traded volume is 8.9 times the 30 day average.

Out of three analysts tracking the company, all maintain 'buy'. The return potential is 19.1%.

The board approved setting up of new greenfield project at Chakan, Maharashtra, with a capital outlay of up to Rs. 175 crore for the Phase 1.

This project will cater to new orders from original equipment manufacturers for advance lighting solutions. The capital expenditure will be funded through a mix of debt and internal accruals.

The peak annualized turnover is expected to the tune of Rs. 600 crore post commissioning, which is likely to take place by Q2 FY24.

The board also agreed to avail long term credit facilities to fund this project.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchange filings

The electoral battle in the states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh nears its culmination, with the counting of votes for the Legislative Assembly underway across the states.

Leads show BJP is set to retain Gujarat; Congress leads in Himachal Pradesh.

Catch all the live updates on the election results here.

The shares of Triveni Engineering and Industries Ltd. were down 4.41% as of 9:33 am in trade on Thursday as the promoter Dhruv Manmohan Sawhney sells his 7.03% stake at Rs 280-285 per share, which is a 3.04-4.75% discount to closing price on Dec. 7.

According to the data compiled by Bloomberg, about 23.6 million shares changed hands during the early hours of trade. The stock traded at 84.9 times the 30-day average volumes.

About 33% of analysts have changed their price targets on the stock over the past one month. Of the eight analysts tracking the stock, all of them continue maintaining a 'buy' rating on the stock.

Shares of Macrotech Developers Ltd. jumped after it launched a qualified institutional placement of equity shares.

The stock rose as much as 2.93% to trade at 1,097.7. Total traded volume is 5.7 times the 30-day average.

Of the 16 analysts tracking the company, 12 maintain 'buy', three suggest 'hold' and one recommends 'sell'. The return potential of the stock implies an upside of 16.7%.

The real estate developer launched a qualified institutional placement consisting of 'offer for sale' to meet minimum public shareholding.

The promoter shareholding currently stands at 82.2%. The floor price of the issue has been set at Rs 1,022.75 per share, 4.17% lower than the current market price.

The offer, which opened on Dec. 7, includes offer for sale of equity shares of Sambhavnath Trust, Sambhavnath Infrabuild and Farms Private Ltd., Hightown Constructions Pvt. Ltd. and Homecraft Developers and Farms Pvt. Ltd., the promoters and promoter group of the company.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchange filings

Tracking the mixed global cues, the Indian benchmark indices opened flat in trade on Thursday.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 93 points by 0.15% to 62,504.04. While, the NSE Nifty 50 opened 10 points higher, up by 0.06% to 18,570.85.

Out of the 50 stocks compiled by the Nifty 50 index, 27 stocks advanced and 23 stocks declined.

SBI Life Insurance Co., Power Grip Corp of India Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., HDFC Life Insurance Co. and TCS Ltd. were the top Nifty 50 laggards. While Eicher Motors Ltd., Larsen and Toubro Ltd., Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd., Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd. and Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd. gained the most in the gauge at the opening bell.

The broader indices outperformed their larger peers, with the mid-cap and small-cap gauges losing 0.30% and 0.39%, respectively.

Sixteen of the 20 sectoral indices compiled by BSE advanced with S&P BSE Oil and Gas and S&P BSE Commodities gaining more than 0.4%.

The market breadth is skewed in favour of the bulls. About 1,704 stocks rose, 786 fell and 121 stocks remained unchanged.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchanges

Yield on the 10-year bond fell 3bps to 7.24% in early trade.

Source: Bloomberg

The rupee gained 19 paise to open at 82.29 on Thursday, against the greenback.

The local currency closed at 82.48 on Wednesday.

Source: Bloomberg

After receiving a positive response for its initial public offering (IPO), the agrochemical company Dharmaj Crop Guard Limited is set to list on the bourses on Thursday.

As of the last day of subscription (November 30, 2022), the Dharmaj Crop Guard IPO was subscribed 35.49 times. The IPO included a fresh issue of equity shares worth ₹216 Crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 14,83,000 equity shares.

• U.S. Dollar Index at 105.10

• U.S. 10-year bond yield at 3.44% on Wednesday

• Brent crude down 2.75% to $77.17 per barrel

• Nymex crude at $72.55 per barrel

• SGX Nifty down 0.05% to 18,661.50 as of 8:10 a.m.

• Bitcoin up 0.02% to $16,834.53

• Elantas Beck India: Nippon India Mutual Fund bought 2.15 lakh shares (2.71%) and Pinebridge INV Asia Ltd. A/C PB Global Funds-Pinebridge India EQ Fund sold 2.16 lakh shares (2.72%) at Rs 4,100 apiece.

• Knowledge Marine & Engineering Works: Himalaya Finance & Investment Co. bought 55,000 shares (0.53%) and Pinkesh sold 1.04 lakh shares (1.01%) at Rs. 875 apiece.

• Stylam Industries: India 2020 Fund II sold 1.19 lakh shares (0.7%) at Rs 1,166.02 apiece, Abakkus Asset Manager LLP (HDFC Custody) bought 3.5 lakh shares (2.06%) and Vanaja Sundar Iyer bought 1.3 lakh shares (0.76%) at Rs 1,127.05 apiece.

• Wockhardt: Humuza Consultants sold 25 lakh shares (1.73%), Kirtan Maneklal Rupareliya bought 7.25 lakh shares (0.5%) and sold 707 shares, Neomile Corporate Advisory bought 15.32 lakh shares (1.06%) and sold 2,600 shares at Rs 225 apiece.

• Hindustan Construction Company: IDBI Trusteeship Services sold 77.13 lakh shares (0.5%) at Rs 19.33 apiece.

• New Delhi Television: LTS Investment Fund sold 5.46 lakh shares (0.84%) at Rs 358.53 apiece.

• Macrotech Developers: Launches QIP consisting of 'offer for sale' to meet minimum public shareholding. The promoter shareholding currently stands at 82.2%. Floor price has been set at Rs 1,022.75 per share, 4.17% lower than the current market price.

• HCL Tech: The company tied up with Intel and Mavenir to develop and deliver private 5G enterprise network solutions for communication service providers and broader cross-vertical enterprises.

• Axis Bank: The bank will raise Rs 12,000 crore via unsecured, rated, listed, subordinated, taxable, non-convertible, Basel III compliant Tier II bonds with a green shoe option of Rs 11,000 crore.

• VA Tech Wabag: The company appointed Pankaj Malhan as deputy managing director and group chief executive officer, with effect from Dec. 7.

• Eveready Industries India: The company appointed Bibek Agarwala as the chief financial officer, with effect from Feb. 14, 2023.

• Inox Wind: Promoters infused Rs 623 crore in the company, which was used to repay Gujarat Fluorochemicals.

• Lumax Industries: The board approved setting up of new greenfield project at Chakan, Maharashtra, and availing long term credit facilities to fund this project.

• ONGC: The petroleum ministry appointed Arun Kumar Singh as chairman of the company for three years, with effect from Dec. 7. The company also signed an MoU with Shell for carbon capture, utilisation and storage

• Tata Consultancy Services: The company entered a partnership with BT Group to transform the latter’s legacy IT estate.

• Ujjivan Small Finance Bank: The RBI approved re-appointment of Ittira Davis as managing director and chief executive officer for period of two years.

• Bank of India: The bank hiked repo-based lending rates by 35 basis points with effect from Dec. 7.

• Triveni Engineering and Industries: Promoter Dhruv Manmohan Sawhney to sell 7.03% stake at Rs 280-285 per share, which is a 3.04-4.75% discount to closing price on Dec. 7.

• IL&FS: Company has entered into a share purchase agreement on with Axis Trustee Services to sell and transfer 1,70,30,000 equity shares representing 50% of the paid-up capital of Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd., a joint venture of the company for a consideration of Re 1. Company has also assigned its receivables in Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd. and Hazaribagh Ranchi Expressway Ltd.

The Asian stocks opened under pressure on Thursday after the U.S. shares declined and treasuries flashed warning signs of the risk of recession.

Equities declined in Australia, Japan and South Korea, while futures for Hong Kong rose.

U.S. stocks were caught in a volatile session as traders were worried by the prospects of an impending recession amid tight Federal Reserve policy.

The Dow closed flat after swinging between gains and losses on Wednesday. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.5%, and the S&P 500 fell 0.2%.

Oil fell 2.8%, while gold futures rose 0.9%. Bitcoin fell 1% to trade around $16,800-level.

The Indian benchmark indices closed lower during trade on Wednesday, after the RBI Monetary Policy Committee's decision to hike interest rates by 35 basis points to 6.25%.

Overseas investors in Indian equities remained net sellers for the third day in a row on Wednesday. Foreign portfolio investors offloaded equities worth Rs 1,241.9 crore, while the domestic institutional investors turned net buyers and mopped up equities worth Rs 388.9 crore, according to data from the National Stock ExchaThe rupee

Rupee snapped its losing streak against the U.S. dollar as the RBI hiked interest rates by 35 basis points.

At 8:10 a.m., the Singapore-traded SGX Nifty -- an early barometer of India's benchmark Nifty 50 -- fell 0.05% to 18,661.5.