The benchmark indices sharply pared losses in early afternoon trade. At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 8.40 points or 0.02% at 50,184.93. The Nifty 50 index lost 4 points or 0.03% at 15,104.10.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 1.37% to Rs 2015, supporting the benchmarks at lower levels.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.73% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.74%.
The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,784 shares rose and 1,084 shares fell. A total of 157 shares were unchanged.
The undertone of the market was upbeat amid hopes of reopening of economic activity soon as fresh daily COVID-19 cases declined. Encouraging quarterly results also boosted sentiment.
Coronavirus Update:
Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 16,42,34,081 with 34,04,391 deaths. India reported 32,26,719 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 2,83,248 deaths while 2,19,86,363 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
India reported a total of 2,67,334 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. It marks the third consecutive day when cases have come below the 3-lakh mark. The country recorded its highest one-day death toll of 4,529 deaths.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, rose 0.66% to 19.3675. The Nifty 27 May 2021 futures were trading at 15,123, at a premium of 18.90 points as compared with the spot at 15,104.10.
The Nifty option chain for 27 May 2021 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 23.5 lakh contracts at the 15,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 43.7 lakh contracts was seen at 14,000 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty IT index rose 0.79% to 26,162.75. The index added 2.24% in three sessions.
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Infotech (up 3.07%), Tech Mahindra (up 1.31%), Mphasis (up 0.93%), Wipro (up 0.76%), HCL Technologies (up 0.63%), TCS (up 0.31%) and Infosys (0.30%) advanced.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Anupam Rasayan India gained 0.33%. The specialty chemical company received contracts worth Rs 540 crore from two renowned multinational companies dealing in the fields of life sciences chemicals. The tenure of the contract is for five years where life sciences related specialty chemicals will be provided to them by Anupam Rasayan. The two new contracts are from two different multinational companies, an existing customer and the other is a recently acquired customer. For both the customer, Anupam Rasayan was a part of their product development process from the start and when the multinational firm commercialised, the company received the order contract.
Adani Green Energy (AGEL) advanced 3.26% after the company signed share purchase agreements for the acquisition of 100% interest in SB Energy India from SoftBank Group (SBG) (80% stake) and Bharti Group (20% stake). SB Energy India has a total renewable portfolio of 4,954 MW (mega-watt) spread across four states in India. The cash transaction values SB Energy India at an enterprise valuation of approximately $3.5 billion (approx. Rs 26,000 cr.), making it the largest acquisition in the renewable energy sector in India. The acquisition will enable AGEL to achieve its target renewable portfolio of 25 GW (giga-watt) four years ahead of the target timeline. The portfolio comprises of high quality, large scale utility renewable assets, which are expected to be value accretive to its shareholders. The transaction is expected to be completed by August 2021.
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries rose 1.45% after Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) purchased 4.83 crore equity shares or 2.016% stake of the drug major. Post transaction, LIC's stake in Sun Pharma has increased to 7.026% from 5.010% held earlier. The deal was executed as a market purchase between 23 June 2017 to 17 May 2021.
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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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