Sensex gains 278 pts, Nifty ends tad below 7500; Lupin up 9%

Moneycontrol Bureau

A potent mix of strong earnings and bargain hunting sparked a late rally on Dalal Street. The Nifty tested 7500 in intra-day trade but ended the day just shy of those levels. The 50-share index was up 85.10 points or 1.1 percent at 7489.10. The Sensex rallied nearly 300 points to surge past the 24500 mark and was at 24616.97 up 278.54 points or 1.1 percent.

Midcaps outperformed the blue chips and the index ended with gains of nearly 2 percent.

Suhas Harinarayanan, JM Financial says ongoing earnings season offers no respite as lower demand and asset quality stress has resulted in more earnings misses than beats and CY16-17 earnings per share have been downgraded by another 2.8-3.6 percent. According to him, movements in asset quality and global volatility are likely to be the bigger drivers for markets.

Metals stocks rallied on hopes of government introducing minimum import price (MIP).According to CNBC-TV18 sources say the government is likely to notify MIP for the ailing steel industry, which is likely to be in the range of USD 340 to 660 per tonne.

Tata Steel ended with over 3 percent gains despite steep loss in December quarters and even analysts are negative on the stock. Hindalco jumped 4 percent.

Riding high on Q3 results, Lupin fetched home 9 percent. The pharma major's third quarter earnings beat analysts' expectations. Consolidated profit declined 11.9 percent year-on-year to Rs 530 crore but increased 29.6 percent on sequential basis. Revenue increased 11.9 percent YoY (up 7 percent QoQ) to Rs 3,556 crore in quarter ended December 2015, driven by Japan and India business while US revenue was flat.

Axis Bank, Cipla and Tata Motors were other top gainers in the Sensex.

Eicher Motors zoomed 7 percent as the manufacturer of Royal Enfield, reported stellar performance in October-December quarter with consolidated profit growing 76 percent year-on-year to Rs 271 crore, boosted by two-wheeler business despite higher tax cost.Meanwhile, Crude oil futures steadied on Friday after earlier losses, as bearish fundamentals weighed on markets at the end of a volatile week that saw prices seesaw over 10 percent within a day.  Low liquidity due to the lunar new year holiday which will last for most of next week has helped oil prices.