Closing Bell: Sensex gains 499 pts, Nifty at 23,750; metal, realty, financials rally

Indian equity indices snapped five-day losing streak and ended on strong note with Nifty at 23,750 on December 23. At close, the Sensex was up 498.58 points or 0.64 percent at 78,540.17, and the Nifty was up 165.95 points or 0.70 percent at 23,753.45.

We wrap up today's edition of the Moneycontrol live market blog, and will be back tomorrow morning with all the latest updates and alerts. Please visit https://www.moneycontrol.com/markets/global-indices for all the global market action.

The index has formed a bullish Harami Cross pattern on the daily chart, indicating a potential rise in market optimism. Besides, the index closed above the 200-EMA. Going forward, a decisive move above 23,850 could trigger a smart recovery towards 24,000/24,400. On the downside, support is placed at 23,540; a breach below this level may lead to further weakness in the index.

Markets experienced a slight recovery after the recent decline, gaining over half a percent. Following an initial gap-up opening, the Nifty oscillated within a range and eventually settled at the 23,753.45 level. Most sectors contributed to the up move, with realty, banking, and FMCG emerging as the top gainers. Meanwhile, the broader indices remained subdued, ending nearly flat.

This pause is typical, driven by oversold positions in index heavyweights. Participants are advised to maintain a cautious stance with a negative bias on the index until clear signs of a rebound emerge. However, individual stocks continue to present opportunities on both sides. We reiterate our preference for the pharma and healthcare sectors for long positions, while other sectors are likely to see mixed trading trends.

The Indian market demonstrated optimism following the recent sell-off. The lower-than-expected US PCE print bolstered investor sentiment in interest rate-sensitive sectors. Broad-based buying was observed, with the metals sector notably benefiting from the anticipated increase in steel import taxes. Despite the positive market sentiment, the short-term outlook is expected to remain sideways due to a lack of new catalysts and the impact of the festive season and holidays.

With a bullish cypher pattern in the picture, the Indian equities started the session on a firm note and it was coupled with a follow-through momentum, but in mid-session, a reversal was seen and the Index wiped off some of its gains to settle the trade at 23,753.45 with gains of 165.95 points. Realty was the top performer among the sectors followed by PSU Banks and BankNifty; and on the flip, Media and Auto were the laggards.

Selling pressure from the higher levels was witnessed in the Broader markets as well but Midcaps managed to hold its ground while Small caps ended the day in red.

On the daily chart, index has made a Bullish Harami Cross candlestick pattern which indicates a potential trend reversal. A strong and sustainable move above the zone of 23,850-24,000 will confirm a trend reversal whereas on the downside, the level of 23,600 will continue to act as a support.

Indian rupee ended at fresh record low 85.11 per dollar on Monday versus Friday's close of 85.02.

Indian equity indices snapped five-day losing streak and ended on strong note with Nifty at 23,750 on December 23.

At close, the Sensex was up 498.58 points or 0.64 percent at 78,540.17, and the Nifty was up 165.95 points or 0.70 percent at 23,753.45. About 1565 shares advanced, 2348 shares declined, and 134 shares unchanged.

Biggest Nifty gainers included JSW Steel, ITC, Hindalco Industries, IndusInd Bank and Trent, while losers included Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki, Nestle India, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Finserv.

Among sectors, bank, FMCG, metal, oil & gas, energy, realty up 0.5-1 percent, while media index shed 0.4 percent.

The BSE midcap index was up marginally, while smallcap index was down0.6 percent.

Adani Defence Systems and Technologies (ADSTL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, has executed a share purchase agreement (SPA) with Air Works India (Engineering) (AWIEPL) and existing shareholders of AWIEPL to acquire 85.8% stake in AWIEPL.

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#1 There is also promoter-selling overhang for Indigo

#2 SpiceJet/IndiGo scheduled flights up 25 percent/27 percent MoM in Dec’24

#3 SpiceJet/IndiGo gained 45 bps/32 bps at the cost of Air India group’s share falling by 65 bps

#4 IndiGo’s 103/109 rank, according to Airhelp survey, indicates huge room for improvement

#1 Company expects minimal impact on sales from the Gujarat MDF plant shut down

#2 There is hope on furniture fittings JV ramp-up

#3 Recent MDF prices increases are encouraging

#4 Expect more price hikes, but sustainability of price hikes needs be watched for

The board of directors at its meeting held on Monday, December 23, 2024, approved the following business:

1. Capital Expenditure amounting to Rs 551 crores and investment of Rs 200 crores for setting up 300 MW of Electrolyser manufacturing plant in its wholly owned subsidiary Waaree Clean Energy Solutions Private Limited under the PLI tender issued by MNRE through SECI. The capex will be funded by mix of debt and internal accruals.

2. Capital Expenditure amounting to Rs 2073 crores and investment of Rs 650 crores for setting up 3.5 GWh Lithium Ion Advanced Chemistry Storage Cell manufacturing plant in its wholly owned subsidiary Waaree Energy Storage Solutions Private Limited. The capex will be funded by mix of debt and internal accruals.

3. Capital expenditure amounting to Rs 130 crores in invertor business through its wholly owned subsidiary Waaree Power Private Limited. Waaree Energies Ltd contribution will be upto Rs 40 crores.

The Sensex was up 453.71 points or 0.58 percent at 78,495.30, and the Nifty was up 152.30 points or 0.65 percent at 23,739.80. About 1446 shares advanced, 2115 shares declined, and 117 shares unchanged.

A meeting of the board of directors will be held on Tuesday, 31st December, 2024 to consider the:

1. To increase the Authorised share capital of the Company.

2. Proposal to raise the funds by issuance of equity shares by way of Right Issue to the existing shareholders of the company as per the applicable laws including Companies Act, 2013 and SEBI (ICDR) Regulations, 2018.

3. Alteration of object clause of the Memorandum of Association of the company.

4. The appointment of Mr. Sunil Jagtap (DIN: 02131011) as an additional director  under Executive Director Category.

QIB – 6.37 times

NII - 6.27 times

Retail – 4.08 times

Overall – 5.19 times

Marine Electricals (India) has received an export order amounting to USD 10,07,009 (approximately Rs 8.56 crores) from Société Minière de DASA SA

(SOMIDA), Niger, West Africa (International Entity) for the supply of HT panels. The delivery will take place over a period of nine months.

QIB – 36.25 times

NII - 71.07 times

Retail – 20.15 times

Employee Reserved - 30.25 times

Overall – 35.64 times

#1 Demand set to Jet as airports & fleet spike

#2 Expansion at major airports to drive growth; no possibility of over-supply beyond FY28

#3 Large orders to drive fleet addition; return of P&W fleet from Q4, near-term Edge

#4 Indian carriers continue to gain share in international traffic

#5 Shift from long-haul railway AC traffic to help double aviation traffic

#1 Company introduced four new hindered amine light stabilisers in H1FY25

#2 Ramp-up in new products not only drives revenue but also mitigates product concentration risk

#3 Company is investing Rs 330 cr (40 percent of FY24 gross block) over FY25-26, which will keep asset turnover lower

#4 Believe valuation is contextually high at 45/37/33x FY25/26/27 EPS

#1 Company sought to tamper expectations on chunky HVDC orders

#2 Railways orders for locos/trainsets are slow & possibility of a higher share going to IR factories

#3 LV business (smart infra – discoms capex/digital infra – private capex) is lacklustre

#4 Limited near-term triggers in HVDC/railways calls for caution

QIB – 1.42 times

NII - 3.38 times

Retail – 3.62 times

Overall – 2.96 times

QIB – 14.81 times

NII - 49.47 times

Retail – 17.17 times

Employee Reserved - 26.06 times

Overall – 23.42 times

#1 Company announced acquisition of 79.82 percent stake in Thriveni Earthmovers & Infra for Rs 70 crore

#2 This boasts robust mining portfolio

#3 Company is engaged in 15 ongoing mining projects, including Surjagarh Mine

JBM Ecolife Mobility a subsidiary of JBM Auto, has been awarded the contracts as a bus operator for procurement, operation and maintenance of 343 electric buses for Ahmedabad BRTS, Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service under Gross Cost Contracting [GCC] and some leading Corporates.

The broad consideration of contract is Rs 1,800 crore.

The Finance Committee of the company, at its meeting held on December 23, 2024 has approved the conversion of the existing medium term note programme into a global medium term note programme of the company and subject to market conditions and regulatory compliances, issuance of secured debt instruments in the form of US Dollar / other foreign currency denominated notes under the GMTN programme.

Dev Information Technology has added new service line to its existing service line viz Advanced Cybersecurity Solutions

Brightcom Group at its meeting held on December 22, 2024, has approved the proposal to appoint M/s P R Chandra & Co, Hyderabad, as a Joint Auditor of the company. This proposal will be placed before the shareholders for their approval at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled to be held on 31st Jan 2025.

#1 Government capex is set to jump in Q2FY25 while outlook for private capex seems feeble

#2 Demerger & listing of the energy business is set to be completed in CY25

#3 Margin is likely to rise in the mobility space & digital industries, led by exports & indigenisation

#4 Company will benefit from multi-year capex cycle

#5 Expect an earnings CAGR of 22 percent in FY24-27 & a 20 percent RoE in FY25-27

QIB – 0.02 times

NII - 2.88 times

Retail – 3.25 times

Overall – 2.28 times

#1 Reliance Jio loses 37.60 lakh users vs loss of 79.7 lakh users in September

#2 Vodafone Idea loses 19.77 lakh users vs loss of 15.5 lakh users in September

#3Bharti Airtel adds 19.28 lakh users vs loss of 14.35 lakh users in September

#4 BSNL adds 5 lakh users vs 8.5 lakh users in September

QIB – 8.39 times

NII - 36.34 times

Retail – 14.91 times

Employee Reserved - 21.63 times

Overall – 17.65 times

#1 Government capex should pick up in H2 after muted a H1, Q3 this far has been weak

#2 On private capex, metal/auto has been flattish

#3 Data centres, pharma, food & beverages, machine builders, semiconductors have been growing well

#4 Channel de-stocking is not over which has impacted short-cycle digital industries segment orders

#5 Adverse short-cycle & back-ended rail order commentary reflects negative read for ABB

The Board has approved an investment of Rs 657.33 crore for setting up a yarn project at Bhadrak, Odisha. The project, which is a 50:50 joint venture with MCPI, consists of a 900 TPD continuous polymerization (CP) unit with downstream units of draw textured yarn (DTY), fully drawn yarn (FDY), polyester chips, and associated facilities, with an estimated cost of Rs 4,382.21 crore.

The Sensex was up 640.83 points or 0.82 percent at 78,682.42, and the Nifty was up 213.95 points or 0.91 percent at 23,801.45. About 1664 shares advanced, 1788 shares declined, and 149 shares unchanged.

The board of directors of the company at its meeting held on December 23 approved sub-division/split of each equity shares of 10 each fully paid-up into 5 equity shares of Rs 2 each.

The Board has approved the appointment of Darshil Shah as the Managing Director of the company in place of Hitesh Shah for five years, effective January 1, 2025.

Currently, Darshil Shah is the Executive Director. The Board also changed the designation of Hitesh Shah from Managing Director to Non-Executive Director of the company.

The Board has approved the public issuance of secured non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of face value Rs 1,000 each, amounting up to Rs 2,000 crore in one or more tranches.

#1 There is sharp fall in cost of production for new e-2-wheeler

#2 Company is gaining market share in EV space

#3 Multiple growth levers include growth in domestic 2-w portfolio

#4 Recovery in exports markets monthly run-rate now close to pre-COVID levels

#5 Valuation of 25x/22x FY26/27 EPS is supportive considering EPS CAGR of 15 percent over FY25-27

The company's subsidiary Reliance Digital Health has entered into definitive agreements to acquire a 45 percent equity stake in Health Alliance Group Inc. for $10 million. HAGI is a US-based healthcare company specializing in designing technology-driven solutions for the underserved in the United States, India, and the rest of the world.

The company's subsidiary Tata Consultancy Services (Africa) (Proprietary) (TCS Africa) has entered into an agreement with Isisekelo Sethu Trust to sell and dispose of its 30 percent shares in TCS SA to comply with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) guidelines in South Africa.

Post the transaction, TCS SA will cease to be a wholly owned step-down subsidiary of TCS. TCS Africa is a wholly owned subsidiary, and Tata Consultancy Services (South Africa) (Proprietary) (TCS SA) is a step-down wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services.

Brightcom Group at its meeting held on December 22, 2024, has approved the proposal to appoint M/s P R Chandra & Co, Hyderabad, as a Joint Auditor of the company. This proposal will be placed before the shareholders for their approval at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled to be held on 31st Jan 2025.

Investors Eight Roads Ventures and F-Prime Capital have together invested Rs 120 crore in Laurus Bio, a subsidiary company of Laurus Labs. The company completed the said transaction on December 20.

The company has acquired 59.7 lakh equity shares (representing 7.6 percent equity) in its subsidiary Agilus Diagnostics from the International Finance Corporation at a price of Rs 719.2 per share, for Rs 429.37 crore.

Curateq Biologics s.r.o., a wholly owned step-down subsidiary of the company, has obtained marketing authorization from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for Bevgolva, its bevacizumab biosimilar version. Bevacizumab is used in the treatment of multiple cancers, including metastatic colorectal cancer.