Key benchmark indices traded in a narrow range near the day's high in afternoon trade. At 13:26 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 719.69 points or 1.88% at 39,016.98. The Nifty 50 index was up 195.85 points or 1.75% at 11,397.60.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.45% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.50%.
The market breadth favored the bulls. On the BSE, 1474 shares rose and 795 shares fell. A total of 136 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 44 stocks advanced while 6 stocks declined.
Economy:
The IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) declined to 54.5 in February 2020 from a near 8-year high of 55.3 in the previous month.
Commenting on the latest survey results, Pollyanna de Lima, Principal Economist at IHS Markit, said: "Factories in India continued to benefit from strong order flows in February, from both the domestic and international markets. The pick-up in demand meant that companies were able to further lift production and input buying at historically-elevated rates."However, alarm bells are ringing for Indian goods producers as the COVID-19 outbreak poses threats to exports and supply chains. Businesses became less confident about the year-ahead outlook for output, in turn restricting hiring activity. Meanwhile, price data continued to highlight a lack of inflationary pressure in the sector. Only modest increases in input costs and output charges were recorded in February, a trend that has been a key theme of the manufacturing PMI survey for over a year."
Stocks in Spotlight:
Maruti Suzuki India rose 1.35% to Rs 6368.85. The company reported a decline of 1.1% in overall sales, including domestic and exports. Maruti sold 147,110 units in February 2020 as compared to 1,48,682 units in February 2019.
Mahindra & Mahindra added 1.97% to Rs 465.40. M&M reported a 42% fall in total automotive sales to 32,476 units in February 2020 from 56,005 units in February 2019.
Tata Motors shed 1.01% to Rs 127.70. The auto maker reported 32.4% decline in total sales (domestic & international) to 40,634 units in February 2020 from 60,151 units in February 2019.
Eicher Motors gained 5.13% to Rs 17457.20. The company's unlisted subsidiary VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) reported 28.7% decline in total sales to 4,586 units in February 2020 from 6,428 units in February 2019.
Bajaj Auto fell 3.06% to Rs 2801.95 after its total domestic auto sales fell 10% to 354,913 units in February 2020 as against 393,089 units sold in February 2019. Bajaj Auto's total 2-wheeler domestic sales fell by 21% to 146,876 units, total exports jumped 15% to 163,346 units in February 2020 over February 2019.
Accordingly, total 2-wheeler sales in February 2020 stood at 310,222 units, down by 5% from 327,985 units in February 2019. Shares of Bajaj Auto were trading 0.4% lower at Rs 2878.75.
Reliance Industries rose 1.22% to Rs 1344.85. RIL said it has acquired 37.7% stake in textile manufacturer Alok Industries for Rs 250 crore. RIL and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co had jointly bid for acquiring Alok Industries that was auctioned under the insolvency and bankruptcy law by lenders to recover their unpaid loans.
Bharti Airtel was up 1.22% to Rs 530.45. The telecom major said it has paid an additional Rs 8,004 crore towards AGR dues. With the latest payment, the company has paid Rs 18,004 crore in all. The company has also deposited an additional amount of Rs 5,000 crore as an ad-hoc payment to cover differences, if any, arising from the reconciliation exercise with the Department of Telecommunication (DoT).
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories advanced 1.52% to Rs 2970.15. The drug maker said that the U. S. Food and Drug Administrator Investigator has revised Form 483 with just one observation, in place of two observations intimated earlier for the Formulations Manufacturing Plant - 3 at Bachupally, Hyderabad.
NTPC added 2.16% to Rs 108.85. The company declared the commencement of 800 MW Unit#1 of Darlipalli Super Thermal Power Station Stage-I (2 x 800 MW). The commercial production will start from 1 March 2020. With this, the commercial capacity of NTPC and NTPC group will become 49,695 MW and 58,156 MW respectively.
Coal India jumped 3.39% to Rs 173.95 after the state-run coal producing major announced decent provisional production and offtake figures for February 2020. The company said that its total provisional coal production in February 2020 stood at 66.26 million tonnes as compared to 58.05 million tonnes in February 2019, registering a 14.2% jump. Provisional coal offtake grew 6.8% to 54.97 million tonnes in February 2020 as against 51.46 million in February 2019.
Global Markets:
European shares opened mostly higher while most Asian markets were trading higher on Monday as investors were rattled by weekend data from China that showed its fastest ever contraction in factory activity, raising fears of a global recession from the coronavirus.
Chinese factory activity slumped to its sharpest contraction on record after the virus crippled manufacturing in February. The closely watched Caixin/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) tumbled to 40.3 last month, the lowest level since the survey began in 2004, and down sharply from the 51.1 reading in January.
In US, stocks closed mostly lower on Friday, but off session lows, while recording their worst weekly slide since October 2008 amid intensifying fears over the potential degree of damage the spread of COVID-19 will inflict on the global economy and supply chains.
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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)