Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services:
Domestic equities were upbeat chasing global trend in spite of stricter restrictions being imposed following spiking covid cases.
Market presumes it as a precautionary measure to curb public gathering during holiday season. The global markets remained positive taking cues from strong US holiday season sales and reports on reduced risk of the new covid variant.
Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking:
Markets extended Monday’s up move and gained nearly a percent, tracking firm global cues. The benchmark opened with an uptick and gradually inched higher as the day progressed. It was buying in the index heavyweights across sectors which kept the tone positive and aided the index to settle around the day’s high.
Meanwhile, the market breadth was also inclined strongly on the advancing side.
Markets are taking cues from their global counterparts and seeing a rebound amid the news of rising COVID cases domestically and restrictions announced by a few states. While all the sectors are contributing to the move, the underperformance of the banking pack is still hurting the sentiment.
We recommend focusing on the sectors which are trading in sync with the benchmark while keeping a check on leveraged positions. The upcoming monthly expiry of December month derivatives contracts would further add to the volatility.
Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities
Domestic market is drawing strength from upsurge in global equity indices, which have been steadily moving up in recent sessions after correcting sharply on concerns related to the Omicron variant, likely interest rate hikes in key developed economies going ahead and the rising inflation world wide.
After a long time, the Nifty succeeded to close above the 20-day SMA which is broadly positive. The short term texture is bullish but due to gains in recent sessions, bulls may prefer to take a temporary pause near 17275-17300 levels. Trading setup suggests a quick intraday correction if the Nifty trades below 17180, and below the same the correction wave could move up to 17100-17160 levels.
On the other hand, above 17200, the index uptrend continuation formation will continue up to 17300 and further upside could lift the index up to 17370.
Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst, Deen Dayal Investments
While the Nifty managed to touch 17250, it closed below it. We need to keep above 17250 for a bullish trend to emerge and sustain. The index can scale up to 17600 if we close above 17250. The market has a good support at 16800.
Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities:
Index opened a day with good gap and managed to hold its gain throughout the day & given a close at 17234 with gains of nearly one percent forming a bullish candle on daily chart.
Now fresh base is created at 17200 zone and until trading above mentioned support zone, one can expect extension in current pullback but if unable to hold then we may see some profit booking towards 17100 zone. On the higher side immediate hurdle is coming near 17300-17400 zone. The overall structure seems positive as index managing above 17k mark.
S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP securities:
Indices remained positive and closed in the green today with most of the sectoral indices ending higher. Advance- Decline ratio was very favorable as investors sought to accumulate high quality midcap names across sectors as well as textile exporters in afternoon Trade.
CY 2021 saw the Bank Nifty under-perform the Nifty-500 by over 15% despite earnings upgrades as the street worried on the likely disruption by fintechs on digital lending & payments.
Market Close:
Benchmark indices ended higher for the second consecutive session on December 28 led by the IT, auto, capital goods and banking names.
At close, the Sensex was up 477.24 points or 0.83% at 57,897.48, and the Nifty was up 147 points or 0.86% at 17,233.30. About 2519 shares have advanced, 773 shares declined, and 99 shares are unchanged.
Asian Paints, M&M, Titan Company, UltraTech Cement and Sun Pharma were among the top Nifty gainers. Losers were IndusInd Bank, Power Grid and ICICI Bank.
All the sectoral indices ended in the green with capital goods, auto, IT, and PSU bank indices up 1 percent each. The BSE midcap and the smallcap indices up 0.9-1.4 percent.
NMDC fixes prices of Lump Ore and Fines:
NMDC has fixed the prices of Iron Ore w.e.f. 28-12-2021 with Lump Ore (65.5%. 6-40mm) price at Rs 4,900/- per ton and Fines at (64%. -10mm) price at Rs 4,060/- per ton.
NMDC was quoting at Rs 132.80, up Rs 0.30, or 0.23 percent.
Visaka Industries grants patent by United States of America Patent Office
Visaka Industries Limited has been granted a patent for its product “ATUM “Solar Roof by the United States of America Patent Office, which is valid for 20 years. The patent has been granted for the invention titled “Eco-Friendly Energy Generating Roofs.”
Visaka Industries was quoting at Rs 621.00, up Rs 39.40, or 6.77 percent on the BSE.
BSE Oil & Gas index added 1 percent led by the Gail India, BPCL, ONGC
Gaurang Somaiya, Forex & Bullion Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services:
Rupee in 2021 consolidated in a broad range of 72.50 and 75, but just before the year-end, it surpassed the barrier and hit a high of 76.50. Suspected RBI intervention kept the volatility in control and led to stabilising the currency. The central bank has played a major role in curtailing the volatility of the rupee and, at the same time has built a good quantum of FX reserves to deal with future uncertainty if there is any.
In the coming year, investors will be backing up on better domestic fundamentals that would support the rupee, but at the same time policy normalization could extend gains for the dollar. The recent move in the dollar suggest that the range has shifted higher and further lows in case of the rupee could be bought in. We expect the USDINR pair to trade with a positive bias and with the range of 73.50 and 77.50.”
BSE Oil & Gas index added 1 percent led by the Gail India, BPCL, ONGC
Navneet Damani, VP – Commodities Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services:
Gold inched higher despite an uptick in Dollar as market participants assess the impact of the Omicron variant on the economy. Asian stock markets were generally weaker with U.S. crude in holiday-thinned trading, as uncertainty over the economic impact of the Omicron variant weighed on investor sentiment.
Investors grew confident a global recovery would regain steam next year even though the pandemic has prompted US airlines to cancel or delay thousands of flights due to staff shortages, while several cruise ships had to cancel stops after COVID-19 outbreaks aboard.
Gold could remain supported at lower levels after China reported its highest daily rise in local COVID-19 cases in 21 months as infections more than doubled in the northwestern city of Xian, its latest hotspot. Broader range on COMEX could be between $1780- 1825 and on the domestic front prices could hover in the range of Rs 48,000 – 48,385.
Market at 3 PM
Benchmark indices were trading higher in the final hour of the session with Nifty above 17200.
The Sensex was up 424.04 points or 0.74% at 57844.28, and the Nifty was up 133.50 points or 0.78% at 17219.80. About 2376 shares have advanced, 736 shares declined, and 84 shares are unchanged.
BSE Capital Goods index rose 1 percent led by the Timken India, Grindwell Norton, Graphite India
Motilal Oswal on Eris Lifesciences
Eris Lifesciences share price gained over 6 percent on December 218 after Motilal Oswal initiated coverage on the stock with a ‘buy’ call.
The domestic research firm has initiated coverage on Eris Lifesciences with a ‘buy’ rating and a target price of Rs 870 per share, an upside of 20 percent from current market price.
“In just 14 years, Eris has built a pure-play branded formulations business, with a revenue of Rs 13 billion (12 months ending September). Notably, its PAT has nearly doubled to Rs 3.5 billion during FY16–21. The company ranks among the top 25 Indian companies in revenue terms,” the research firm said.
The company has presence across the value chain in developing, manufacturing, and marketing of branded pharma products in select chronic therapies as the fastest growing company in the chronic category, such as anti-diabetes, cardiac care and vitamins/minerals/nutrients.
Torrent Pharma gets EUA nod from DCGI for Molnupiravir for COVID patients in India
Torrent Pharma announced that it is introducing MSD (a trade name of Merck & Co., Inc, Kenilworth, NJ, USA) and Ridgeback’s molnupiravir under the brand name Molnutor in India. The stock was trading at Rs 3,141.95, down Rs 6.80, or 0.22 percent. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 3,177.70 and an intraday low of Rs 3,117.05.
Sun Pharma gets EUA nod from DCGI for Molnupiravir in India
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from DCGI to manufacture and market a generic version of MSD and Ridgeback’s molnupiravir under the brand name Molxvir in India. The stock was trading at Rs 809.35, up Rs 15.25, or 1.92 percent. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 809.60 and an intraday low of Rs 794.20.
European Markets Updates
India's real GDP to maintain 9% growth rate till next year, estimates ICRA
The Indian economy is likely to maintain a real GDP growth of 9 percent each in FY2022 and FY2023 amid uncertainty triggered by the Omicron variant of corona virus, according to ICRA.
The rating agency highlighted that the available data for the third quarter of financial year 2021-22 does not offer convincing evidence that the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) criteria of a durable and sustainable growth recovery has been met, to confirm a change in the policy stance to neutral in February 2022.
“The data for October-November 2021 does not point to a broad-basing of the growth recovery in India. After the higher-than-expected net cash outgo sought under the second supplementary demand for grants, the pace of actual government spending is likely to determine whether the pace of GDP growth meaningfully exceeds 6.0-6.5 percent in Q3 FY2022,” Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at ICRA, said.
Market update at 2 PM
: Sensex is up 490.80 points or 0.85% at 57911.04, and the Nifty jumped 151 points or 0.88% at 17237.30. Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra and UltraTech Cement are the top gainers while Supriya Lifesciences, Tata Motors and RBL Bank are the most active stocks.
Among the sectors, auto, IT and realty are up over a percent each while the midcap and smallcap indices are also trading in the green.
Exports rise 36% during December 1-21: Commerce Ministr
y
The country’s exports rose by 36.2 percent to $23.82 billion during December 1-21 this year, according to preliminary data of the commerce ministry. Exports, excluding petroleum, have increased by 28.08 percent during the period under review.
“The value of export is $23.82 billion, up by 36.20 percent over the same period of 2020-21 ($17.49 billion) and up by 27.70 percent over the same period of 2019-20 ($18.65 billion),” it said.
BSE Midcap index added 1 percent led by the Astral, Ajanta Pharma, RBL Bank
Tata-Siemens JV to develop Metro Corridor for Pune Metro under PPP route
A joint venture between TRIL Urban Transport Private Limited (a Tata Group Company) and Siemens Project Ventures GmbH (subsidiary of Siemens Financial Services) under Public Private Partnership Route (PPP) will develop the metro corridor from Hinjewadi to Shivajinagar. The joint venture has formed a special purpose company called Pune IT City Metro Rail Limited.
Siemens was quoting at Rs 2,409.15, up Rs 56.10, or 2.38 percent on the BSE.
Cipla gets EUA nod for launch of Molnupiravir in India:
Cipla has been granted Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) permission by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for the launch of Molnupiravir in the country, company said in its release.
Cipla plans to launch Molnupiravir under the brand name Cipmolnu. Molnupiravir is the first oral antiviral approved by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 at high risk of developing severe disease.
Cipla was quoting at Rs 932.20, up Rs 1.95, or 0.21 percent on the BSE.
Market at 1 PM
Benchmark indices continued to trade higher with Nifty above 17200 supported by the IT, auto, metal and realty names.
The Sensex was up 493.09 points or 0.86% at 57913.33, and the Nifty was up 151.20 points or 0.88% at 17237.50. About 2450 shares have advanced, 618 shares declined, and 89 shares are unchanged.
Maharashtra Seamless bags Rs 150.70 crore orders
Maharashtra Seamless has successfully bagged Rs 150.70 crore orders from PSU Companies for supply of ERW and Seamless pipes, company aid in its press release.
Maharashtra Seamless was quoting at Rs 511, up Rs 6.20, or 1.23 percent on the BSE.
BSE Auto index gained 1 percent supported by the Eicher Motors, M&M, Bosch, Tata Motors
Amit Pabari, MD at CR Forex Advisors
While the global markets are resting in a holiday mood, RBI seems to be diligently working announcing another two VRRR auctions aggregating to 2.5 lakh crore today in order to suck excess rupee liquidity out of the banking system. This is the third VRRR that RBI has announced in two weeks as it fails to absorb expected liquidity.
This is similar to what US Federal Reserve was doing in April-May 2021 before turning hawkish in Oct-Nov 2021. RBI’s action also indicates a similar pattern of how steadily it aims to move towards the interest rate normalization. This could result in an appreciating move in Rupee and could pressurize bond markets leading to a higher bond yield.
We expect USDINR to trade in the range of 74.80 - 75.30 today with a slight downside bias.
Over 300 stocks touched 52-week highs on the BSE; get a complete list of stocks that have touched their 52 week highs
Ajanta Pharma board approves share buyback
The board of directors of Ajanta Pharma approved today buyback of up to 11,20,000 fully paid-up equity shares of face value of Rs 2 each by the company at a price of Rs 2,550 per equity share payable in cash, as per the company's press release.
The total pay-out towards buyback of shares will be not exceeding Rs 356 crore (equity shares buyback consideration not exceeding Rs 286 crore + buyback tax not exceeding Rs 70 crore) on a proportionate basis through the tender offer process, it added.
Ajanta Pharma was quoting at Rs 2,320.95, up Rs 142.40, or 6.54 percent on the BSE.
CAIT wants GST hike on textiles to be deferred, writes to FM Sitharaman
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on December 27 requested Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to defer the hike in the goods and services tax (GST) on textiles that kicks in from January 1, 2022.
The government in November notified an increase in GST on natural fibre products from 5 percent to 12 percent, including apparels in the lower tax bracket with effect from January 1, 2022. The decision was taken at the last GST Council Meet in September.
The traders’ body called for a task force, headed by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes chairman and comprising representatives of the industry as well as senior government officials, to discuss the hike at length and arrive at a consensus.
Market at 12 PM
Benchmark indices extended the gains and trading at day's higher level with Nifty above 17200.
The Sensex was up 474.34 points or 0.83% at 57894.58, and the Nifty was up 146.20 points or 0.86% at 17232.50. About 2413 shares have advanced, 621 shares declined, and 84 shares are unchanged.
Nish Bhatt, Founder & CEO, Millwood Kane International:
The Indian rupee will end the year on a weaker note against the dollar for another year. Historically, the rupee has depreciated against the dollar in the range of 1-3% YoY, and this year was no different, the INR depreciated almost 2% versus the USD. The rupee traded in the range of 72.263-76.419, the rupee has recovered somewhat from the lowest level witnessed earlier in the month.
One of the major factors for the decline was the eminent liquidity tapering by the US Fed and other central banks. FIIs have pulled out over Rs 30,000 crore from the Indian equity market leading to some nervousness in the key indices as it trades a few percentage points below its all-time high. The concerns of liquidity tapering and rising inflation make it tough for central banks to stay put with accommodative policy, the scenario will force liquidity tightening & rate hikes by the RBI somewhere in 2022, its effect is already reflected in the performance of the INR.
The performance of INR has been one of the worst among its Asian peers. RBI intervention, inflation trajectory, movement of crude prices, and pace of liquidity unwinding by global central banks will guide the INR in the short to medium term.
MAS Financial Services announces co-lending partnership with Bank Of Maharashtra
Mas Financial Services Limited has entered into a strategic co-lending partnership with Bank of Maharashtra for lending to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) further strengthening its relationship with the bank, company said in its release.
MAS Financial Services was quoting at Rs 656.10, down Rs 7.55, or 1.14 percent on the BSE.
Sneha Poddar, AVP Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services:
Supriya Lifescience, a pharma API manufacturer, made a stellar debut with 55% gains, listing at Rs 425/share against IPO price of Rs 274, amidst positive market sentiments.
It has a niche product portfolio of 38 APIs with focus primarily on diverse therapeutic areas. It has consistently been India’s largest exporter of certain niche products with well-balanced presence between regulated and semi/non-regulated markets.
We like Supriya for its niche product portfolio, backward integrated business model and robust financials. It is well placed to tap opportunity in the pharma API market given its strong pipeline focused on further diversification.
Airtel and TCS demonstrate 5G based Remote Robotic Operations
Bharti Airtel and Tata Consultancy Services announced the successful testing of innovative use cases from TCS’ Neural Manufacturing™ solutions suite on Airtel’s ultra-fast and low latency 5G network.
Tata Consultancy Services was quoting at Rs 3,720.00, up Rs 23.90, or 0.65 percent and Bharti Airtel was quoting at Rs 680.70, up Rs 4.95, or 0.73 percent.
FPIs have pumped in Rs 79,851 crore in IPOs this year
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumped in a record $10.8 billion (Rs 79,851 crore) in the Indian primary market so far this year. FPIs surpassed the previous high of $9.7 billion in 2020, despite continued withdrawal from Indian equities and bonds amid fears of a rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
FPIs became net buyers of $3.9 billion worth of Indian equities in 2021 despite selling stocks worth $6.8 billion in the secondary market, The Economic Times reported, citing data from CDSL.
BSE Smallcap index rose 1 percent led by the Uniphos Enterprises, Nahar Polyfilms, Andrew Yule & Company
Market update at 11 AM: Sensex is up 334.62 points or 0.58% at 57754.86, and the Nifty jumped 107 points or 0.63% at 17193.30.
Ramkrishna Forgings Gets LoI Worth Rs 22.5 crore from Mexico
Ramkrishna Forgings Limited received an LoI worth USD 3 million per annum from Major Tier 1 Axle Manufacturer in Mexico for manufacturing of front axle beam. The stock was trading at Rs 946.00, up Rs 11.00, or 1.18 percent. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 957.35 and an intraday low of Rs 932.15. It was trading with volumes of 135,075 shares, compared to its five day average of 101,569 shares, an increase of 32.99 percent.
BSE to consider bonus issue on February 10
A meeting of the board of directors is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, February 8, 2022 to consider and approve the unaudited Financial Results (Standalone and Consolidated) of the company for the quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2021.
The board of directors shall, also consider, the proposal for issue of bonus shares at the aforesaid meeting, subject to requisite approvals.
BSE Limited was quoting at Rs 1,963.90, up Rs 128.75, or 7.02 percent on the NSE.
Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst, Deen Dayal Investments
The index is slowly inching towards the 17200 mark. It is imperative we have a couple of closings above this level. That would mark the beginning of a new medium-term bullish trend. That would also allow the Nifty to scale up higher towards 17600.
16800 has now become a good support for the index and as long as that holds, we can aim at entering long positions.
Top 10 India’s conglomerates delivers bumper returns this year
India’s Top 10 conglomerates by market value have delivered bumper returns to investors this year, jumping nearly 45% as the market rally has pushed up share prices of most group firms.
The aggregate market capitalization of the top 10 conglomerates was at Rs 81.57 trillion as of 23 December from Rs 55.90 trillion as on 31 December 2020, according to corporate data provider ACE Equity.
The aggregate performance is more or less in line with that of all BSE-listed companies, whose market cap rose 39% to Rs 261.24 trillion as of today from Rs 188.03 trillion as of 31 December 2020.
Adani Group firms with six listed entities was the top gainer conglomerate in this year, surging over 130%. It added around Rs 5.51 trillion market cap increase to the total. This was largely because of the performance of its Adani Total Gas Ltd, Adani Transmission Ltd, Adani Enterprises Ltd and Adani Power Ltd which surged between 100-360%. Other two group firms – Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone and Adani Green Energy jumped 33% and 50% respectively.
OP Jindal group was the second most gainer with a jump of over 86% in this year followed by L&T group and Aditya Birla group, which rose 70 and 60%, respectively.
In absolute terms, the Tata Group with 28 firms listed, has seen the highest jump in market cap, an increase of almost Rs 6.70 trillion. All the Tata group firms gave returns between 30%-1978% in this year except Rallis India which is down nearly 8%. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) and Automobile Corp of Goa surged over 1600% and 1980% respectively.
Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart view of Supriya Lifescience:
In the last 3-5 years, the API and specialty chemical industry have been darling for investors, and we believe that this trend will continue for several years. As a result of the decent participation from investors, the IPO debuted at Rs 421 versus the issue price of Rs 274, a premium of 53%.
In the long run, investors should hold the stock while those who applied for listing gains can keep a stop loss of Rs 380 on a closing basis. New investors can also look for buying opportunities in dips.