Manish Hathiramani, Proprietary Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments

We witnessed nervousness around the 14,750 levels and the Nifty erased all its gains to close in the red. However, the trend continues to remain positive and we still have a pending target of 14,800-14,900. Since the support of 14,300 continues to hold, a favourable risk to reward trade can be initiated with a target of 14,800 and a stop of closing below 14,300.

Market At Close

- Market Fails To Hold Record High Hit Intra-day, Closes With Cuts

- Sensex Slips 559 Points From Record High Of 50,184 To Close 167 Pts Lower At 49,625

- Nifty Falls 163 Pts From Record High Of 14,754 To End 54 Pts Lower At 14,590

- Broader Markets Underperform With Nifty Bank & Midcap Index Slipping Over 1% Each

- Nifty Bank Closes 357 Pts Lower At 32,187, Slipping 666 Pts From Record High

- Midcap Index Falls 498 Points From Highs To End 270 Pts Lower At 21,927

- Most Sectoral Indices Close In The Red; PSU Bank, Realty & Metal Top Losers

- HDFC Twins, TCS & ITC Major Contributors To Nifty’s Fall From Highs

- Tata Motors, Bajaj Fin, Reliance & UPL Top Nifty Gainers

- Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints Gain While Bandhan Bank, SRF Slip After Q3 Earnings

- Bajaj Fin & Bajaj Finserv Amongst Top Nifty Gainers Following Earnings

- Tata Motors Continues The Gaining Momentum, Rises To A 3-year High

- Havells, Ceat, Apollo Tyres, JK Tyre, IndiaMART Top Midcap Gainers

- L&T Fin, Tata Elxsi, Tata Steel Long Pdts, L&T Tech Amongst Top Midcap Losers

- Market Breadth In Favour Of Declines; Advance-Decline Ratio At 2:5

Closing Bell | The Indian equity market gave up day’s gains to end lower on Thursday. The market witnessed profit-booking after scaling all-time high levels intraday. The Sensex ended 167.36 points or 0.34 percent lower at 49,624.76, while the Nifty fell 54.35 points or 0.37 percent to close at 14,590.35. Broader markets underperformed as Nifty Midcap100 ended 1.22 percent lower and Nifty Smallcap100 fell 0.64 percent. Among the sectoral indices, Nifty PSU Bank fell the most over 3 percent followed by Nifty Metal, Nifty Realty, Nifty Media and Nifty Financial Services.

Amar Ambani, Senior President & Institutional Research Head, Yes Securities

The Sensex has hit 50,000 on the strength of faster than anticipated recovery in economic activity, FPI flows into our market and heightened hope from the upcoming Budget, promised to be “like never before” by the Finance Minister.

We’ve entered a super-cycle for Indian equities like we had seen in the year 2003. We see high possibility of decisive reforms from the government, accelerated earnings growth and a continued liquidity flow chasing growth, in a period of weakening US Dollar. I expect Sensex to surpass 100,000 figure by 2025. A fresh upcycle has resumed for small and midcaps as well, after a long consolidation in 2018, 2019 and large part of 2020.

Bandhan Bank Q3FY21 |  The bank's net profit fell 13.5 percent to Rs 632.6 crore from Rs 731 crore, YoY. Net interest income (NII) grew 34.5 percent to Rs 2,071.7 crore from Rs 1,540.3 crore, YoY. Gross NPA came at Rs 859.2 crore against Rs 874 crore QoQ. Net NPA stood at Rs 201.3 crore against Rs 262.5 crore QoQ. The bank's gross NPA stood at 1.1 percent against 1.2 percent, QoQ, while net NPA came at 0.26 percent against 0.36 percent, QoQ.

Hero MotoCorp | The company has launched 100 millionth motorcycle, the Xtreme160R from its Haridwar plant.

Bajaj Auto Q3FY21 | The company’s net profit jumped 23.4 percent to Rs 1,556.3 crore from Rs 1,261.6 crore, while revenue from operations increased 17 percent to Rs 8,910 crore from Rs 7,640 crore, YoY. 

Ashoka Buildcon | Ashoka Buildcon had submitted bids to NTPC Renewable Energy in respect of the Project viz. EPC package of 150 MW Solar PV Project in Rajasthan for which the company has received Notification of Award (NoA) which includes operation and maintenance of complete Solar PV Plant for a period of 3 years from the date of successful completion of trial run. The accepted bid value/project cost of the project is Rs 502.33 crore.

Home First Finance Company IPO subscribed 33% on Day 1 so far, retail portion booked 56%

The Rs 1,153 crore-initial public offering (IPO) of mortgage lender Home First Finance Company India Limited has been subscribed 33 percent so far on Thursday, the first day of bidding. The issue has received bids for 51.69 lakh equity shares against an offer size of more than 1.56 crore shares, according to data available on the exchanges.

The portion reserved for retail investors has been subscribed 56 percent and that of non-institutional investors 0.8 percent. The portion set aside for qualified institutional buyers was subscribed 17 percent. Read more here.

Market Watch: Himanshu Gupta of Globe Capital

First recommendation is a buy on Bajaj Finserv, it has given a very strong breakout today and my sense is that this can be bought for a target price of Rs 9,550 which can even be revised by Rs 9,700-9,800 and a stop loss below Rs 9,250 is recommended.

Second buy is on Hindustan Unilever (HUL), here also after a brief consolidation, the stock is looking to surge higher. So HUL can be bought for a target price of Rs 2,450 and a stop loss below Rs 2,370.

Finally a buy on Hero Motocorp, here one can initiate long positions for a target price of Rs 3,400 and maintain a stop loss below Rs 3,300.

Aavas Financiers Q3FY21 | The company's net profit rose 25.8 percent to Rs 85.5 crore from Rs 67.9 crore, while revenue increased 29.5 percent to Rs 310 crore from Rs 239.4 crore, YoY.

Indigo Paints IPO subscribed 3.7 times so far on Day 2

The initial public offering (IPO) of Indigo Paints, the fifth-largest decorative paints company in India, was subscribed 3.7 times on the second day of bidding.

As of 1:00 pm, the portion set aside for retail investors was subscribed 5.89 times, while the employee portion was subscribed 0.93 times. The reserved portion of non-institutional investors saw a subscription of 3.07 times and that of qualified institutional buyers 0.48 times.

The IPO comprises of fresh issuance of Rs 300 crore and an offer-for-sale of up to 58,40,000 equity shares by promoters as well as investors. Read more here.

Jyoti Roy - DVP- Equity Strategist, Angel Broking

The Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) initial public offer (IPO) has been subscribed 3.49 times by the time of the closing of the issue. While the QIB portion was oversubscribed 3.78 times the NIB portion was oversubscribed by 2.66 times. Retail and the employee categories were oversubscribed by 3.53 times and 43.73 times respectively. Overall the issue was a success considering the size of the IPO. 

While listing gains are expected to be muted we remain positive on the long term growth prospects of the company. At the higher end of the price band the stock would be trading at P/BV of 1.0x fully diluted post issue book value of Rs. 26.6 per share. We expect the company to post strong growth driven by capex by Indian railways along with stable margins due to cost plus mode.

Market Watch: Jay Thakkar of Marwadi Shares & Finance

One can buy Bajaj Finance targeting around Rs 5,400 in the short term placing a stop loss at Rs 5,050. The reason for that is Bajaj Finance seems to have completed its wave IV consolidation on the daily weekly charts. The momentum indicators have again reversed from sell to buy and the stock has taken good support at its short term moving averages. Overall the probability of Bajaj Finance taking off Rs 5,400 and going forward is quite high.

We have been maintaining our bullish stance on the auto sector and I think Maruti Suzuki has been slowly and steadily forming higher tops and higher bottoms. The short term target for the same comes to around Rs 8,520 and one can buy this with a stop loss of Rs 8,100.

Man Industries | The company’s Q3FY21 net profit rose 4.3 precent to Rs 30.6 crore from 29.3 crore while revenue increased 4.1 percent to Rs 554.5 crore from Rs 532.8 crore, YoY. EBITDA roses 14.1 percent to Rs 67.5 crore from Rs 59.2 pecent and EBITDA margin expanded by 110 basis points to 12.2 percent, YoY.

Garden Reach Shipbuilders | The company has signed the contract for the supply of one Fast Patrol Vessel to the Government of Seychelles at the cost of Rs 99.66 crore.

Motilal Oswal, MD & CEO, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

Sensex touched the historical levels of 50,000 today for the first time ever. Indian markets have been witnessing strong momentum over the past few months on the hopes of a faster economic recovery after the pandemic lockdown. Also, positive global cues, sustained FII inflows and strong corporate earnings kept the sentiments high. Buzz around the upcoming Budget has also added strength to the markets. The Budget could potentially lay the foundation for a long term economic growth path. Overall we expect the market to continue its upward journey on the back of healthy corporate earnings, strong liquidity, positive developments on the vaccine front, broad-based economic recovery and low interest rates.

Bajaj Finance shares jump nearly 4% after Bernstein turns positive on stock

The share price of Bajaj Finance jumped nearly 4 percent on Thursday on positive sentiment after global brokerage and research firm Bernstein turned positive on the stock saying it sees a massive 45 percent upside potential. Bernstein's positive view comes on the stock despite the firm posting a 29 percent year-on-year (YoY) fall in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,145.98 crore for the Dec quarter versus Rs 1,614.11 crore last year. Citi is 'neutral' on the stock while Goldman Sachs has retained its 'sell' rating. Domestic brokerages Sharekhan and Prabhudal Lilladher remained bullish on the stock. More here

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities on BSE Sensex touching 50,000 mark.

"It is a momentous day for India's capital markets as the Sensex touched 50,000 on Jan 21. The gain of last 5,000 points has come in just 32 trading sessions. Expectations of turnaround in the economy post Covid vaccinations and continued FPI inflows have led to this kind of gains for Indian markets in a globally low interest scenario. Post the Forthcoming Union Budget we may witness a temporary brake to the uptrend and further upmoves from hereon will depend on the pace of economic and corporate earnings growth and the trajectory of inflation and interest rates in India  and the world."