Key indices advanced further and hit the day's high in mid-morning trade. The Nifty was trading a tad below the 15,350 level. Auto and IT stocks were in demand while pharma and realty shares corrected. Trading was volatile ahead of the monthly F&O expiry on the NSE today.
At 11:28 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 143.78 points or 0.28% at 51,161.53. The Nifty 50 index was up 43.60 points or 0.28% at 15,345.80.
Nifty is now 86 points away from its record high level of 15,431.75 hit on 16 February 2021
In broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.3% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.46%.
The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1669 shares rose and 1180 shares fell. A total of 150 shares were unchanged.
COVID-19 Update:
Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 168,196,978 with 3,494,595 global deaths.
India reported 24,19,907 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 315,235 deaths, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. In last 24 hours, India recorded 2.1 lakh new cases and registered 3,847 deaths.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Auto index added 0.76% to 10,516.75. The index has added 2.84% in five days.
Tata Motors (up 1.74%), Bosch (up 1.7%), Hero MotoCorp (up 1.63%), Balkrishna Industries (up 1.46%), Bajaj Auto (up 1.21%), TVS Motor Company (up 0.68%), Eicher Motors (up 0.46%), MRF (up 0.41%) and Ashok Leyland (up 0.36%) were top gainers.
Earning Impact:
Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) rose 1.1% after the company reported a net profit of Rs 11,940.13 crore in Q4 FY21 as against a net loss of Rs 1,361.01 crore in Q4 FY20.
Net sales during the quarter increased 11.4% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 76,882.32 crore. The corporation recorded an exceptional gain of Rs 6,992.95 crore during the quarter ended 31 March 2021. Exceptional items for Q4 FY21 include employee share-based expenses, gain on sale of investment in subsidiary and impairment of investment in subsidiary. The corporation had incurred an exceptional expense of Rs 1,080.83 crore in the same period last year, on account of write down of inventory. The corporation reported a pre-tax profit of Rs 12,237.44 crore in Q4 FY21 as against a pre-tax loss of Rs 2,068.87 crore in Q4 FY20. The corporation's gross refining margins (GRMs) for FY21 stood at $4.06 per barrel as against $2.50 per barrel for FY20.
BPCL has recommended a final dividend of Rs 58 per share, which includes a one-time special dividend of Rs 35 and interim dividend of Rs 21 per share.
Global Markets:
Asian stocks were trading mixed on Thursday as investors reacted to the release of Chinese industrial profits data for April.
Earnings at China's industrial firms grew at a slower pace in April. Profits at China's industrial firms rose 57% year-on-year in April to 768.63 billion yuan ($120.22 billion), down from year-on-year growth of 92.3% in March, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Thursday.
US stocks closed out Wednesday's session with modest gains as recent comments from Federal Reserve officials helped tamp down concerns about runaway inflation. Shares of companies linked to a recovering economy gained.
The optimism on the economy comes as U. S. average daily Covid cases fall below 25,000 and as nearly half the U. S. population has received at least one vaccination dose.
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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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