The sharp depreciation in the rupee for sixth consecutive day pushed technology stocks higher, but kept the market volatile.
The Indian market started on a strong note ignoring muted global cues with Sensex rallying over 200 points while Nifty breached its crucial resistance level of 10600 in trade on Monday.
Being expiry week some bit of volatility was expected but larger part of the decline was led by sharp rupee depreciation. The sharp depreciation in the rupee for sixth consecutive day pushed technology stocks higher, but kept the market volatile.
“It has been a volatile day on the bourses as markets have not been able to hold on to gains while bears have been unsuccessful in putting a lid on positive sentiment. Additionally, trading was also volatile due to derivatives expiry, later this week,” Abhijeet Dey, Senior Fund Manager-Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.
Benchmark indices failed to hold on to gains. The S&P BSE Sensex slipped 200 points and Nifty50 by 56 points from their respective intraday highs.
related news
The S&P BSE Sensex closed 35 points higher or 0.10 percent at 34,450.77. The Nifty50 which reclaimed its crucial resistance level of 10600 failed on to gains and closed 20 points higher or 0.2 percent at 10,584.70.
IT stocks which remained in limelight after TCS conquered $100 bn market cap reversed gains in the second half. Share of TCS slipped 4 per cent from day’s high.
The market breadth was in favour of advances with advance-decline ratio at 1:1. The Nifty Bank slipped 123 points from high to close with a minor gain of 17 points while Nifty midcap index outperform, with gains of over 100 points.
Sectorally, the S&P BSE Realty index rose 1.7 percent, followed by the BSE Healthcare index which rose 1.2 percent, and the BSE Consumer Durable index gained 0.6 percent.
On the losing front, the S&P Metal index slipped 0.9 percent, followed by the S&P BSE FMCG index which dropped 0.4 percent.
Top Sensex gainers: IndusInd Bank (up 3.4 per cent), M&M (up 2.7 per cent), Sun pharma (up 1.7 per cent), and Asian Paints (up 1.6 per cent).
Top Sensex losers: Tata Motors DVR (down 1.1 per cent), Coal India (down 1 per cent), HUL (down 0.97 per cent), and ICICI Bank (down 0.8 per cent).
Stocks in news:
TCS close below $100 bn mark: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's most valued company in terms of market capitalisation, created history on Monday when its market cap surpassed the crucial USD 100 billion (~Rs 6.60 lakh crore) mark in intraday trade. The stock closed 0.2% higher at Rs3415.
ICICI bank slips nearly 1 per cent after reports suggested that probe agencies are examining if ICICI Bank should have declared three companies — Pacific Capital Services; Supreme Energy Private Ltd (SEPL) and Pinnacle Energy — as related parties.
KP Energy share price rallied 6 per cent after it incorporated project specific special purpose vehicle (SPV) for sharing rights of 1200MW transmission line infrastructure to be constructed under BoP contracts for wind power projects at Kutch, Gujarat.
IndusInd Bank emerged as top Sensex gainer, up 3.4%. The stock has been in focus post Q4 resultsm after the bank reported 27 percent YoY growth in net profit to Rs 953 crore.
Most brokerage firms have raised their respective target price for IndusInd Bank post announcement of its Q4 result. The most aggressive price target has come from Citigroup which has maintained its buy call on the stock but raised its target price to Rs 2,180 from Rs 2,060 per share.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) asked the lenders of Bhushan Power & Steel, led by PNB, to consider the bid submitted by UK-based Liberty House for the debt-ridden company. The stock closed 8.3% lower.
Unichem Labs rallied nearly 7 per cent after the US Food and Drug Administration completed Ghaziabad plant inspection and has not issued any observations.
Shares of Sasken Technologies hit a record high of Rs 904.20 per share in intraday trade. The stock closed up 16 per cent on the BSE, after the company reported a strong 27.5% sequential growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 259 million in March 2018 quarter (Q4FY18), on back of healthy operational performance.
Global Update:
Meanwhile, European markets began lower as investors took cues from corporate earnings. But they are also keeping an eye on geopolitics and oil. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.12 percent lower.
Asian stocks ended the day lower as investors watched developments around US bond yields as well as fall in IT stocks. The Nikkei 225 shed 0.33 percent, or 74.20 points, to close at 22,088.04.