Infosys boosts Sensex 190 pts, Nifty above 7900; Midcap shines

Moneycontrol Bureau

Infosys helped the BSE Sensex gain more than 200 points intraday Monday despite weakness in global peers due to slump in oil prices. The broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising more than 1 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 189.61 points or 0.74 percent to 25816.36 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 64.25 points or 0.82 percent to 7914.70. The market breadth remained positive as about 1439 shares advanced against 1180 declining shares on Bombay Stock Exchange.

Infosys started off earnings season on a positive note but the overall earnings season may not be too strong, feel experts.

Nilesh Shah of Envision Capital said on a very aggregate basis, it is unlikely that at least for the next two quarters, earnings will get into double digit growth. "Between April and June, we could also see a lot of negative news coming in yet from the banking space, the asset quality concerns and all of that," he reasoned.

He clearly believes that the case for a big upside from current levels over the next few months is not very strong. "We are going to see some bit of consolidation," he said.

According to him, from a very short-term perspective levels, about 8,000 is unlikely to sustain itself and the market may probably remain in this range of 7,000-8,000.The market will remain shut on Tuesday for Mahavir Jayanti holiday. 

Infosys was the biggest gainer on Sensex today, up 5.7 percent after better-than-expected profit and operating profit in March quarter. Even its FY17 dollar revenue guidance of 11.8-13.8 percent is better than Nasscom's industry growth forecast of 10-13 percent.

TCS recouped losses in afternoon trade to close flat ahead of its fourth quarter earnings later in the day. The stock fell 3 percent intraday after the company has been slapped a fine in a trade secret lawsuit by US grand Jury.

Lupin was up 1.8 percent after its US subsidiary launched post-menopause osteoporosis drug FyavolvTM tablets in the US. ITC gained 1.3 percent as the company will resume manufacture of cigarettes in factories after High Court passed order in favour of company.

Among others, HDFC, L&T, Bharti Airtel, Cipla and NTPC gained 1-2 percent while ICICI Bank, SBI, ONGC, Hero Motocorp, Adani Ports, Bajaj Auto and GAIL fell 1-3 percent.Meanwhile, WPI inflation came in at negative 0.85 percent in March against negative 0.91 percent in February, 2016.

Globally, markets were lower as oil tumbled after top oil producers failed to reach an agreement to freeze production. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei lost 3.4 percent, taking a hit from large earthquakes last week. Shanghai was down 1.4 percent and Hang Seng declined 0.7 percent. European markets recovered early losses to trade flat (at 16 hours IST).

Oil prices pared some of the over 5 percent losses seen in early trade. US crude futures were down 2.8 percent at USD 39.24 a barrel, after falling over 5.7 percent in early morning trade. Global benchmark Brent was down 2.18 percent at USD 42.16, retracing some of its more than 5 percent loss from earlier.