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

The markets were successful in crossing 14,950 but failed to sustain there. We reversed from there in few minutes and have again closed below the 14,900 levels. If we are able to get past the 14,950 levels on a closing basis, we could move higher to 15,300-15,400. On the other hand if we drift downward and break 14,500 we could fall further to 14,200.

Market At Close

- Metals IT & Cement Shine While Financials Drag Market

- Financials Drag Nifty By 19 Points While IT Lifts By 22 Points

- Nifty Slips 110 Points, Sensex 372 Points & Nifty Bank 524 Points From Highs

- Sensex Fails To Hold 50-DMA Of 50,072, Closes 84 Points Higher At 49,746

- Nifty Gains 55 Points To 14,874 & Midcap Index 129 Points To 24,462

- Nifty Bank Slips 208 Points To 32,783; All Nifty Bank Constituents In The Red

- Steel Cos Surge After Brokerages Raise Estimate; JSW Steel Up 9%, Tata Steel 5%

- Price Increase Reports Keep Cement Stocks Buzzing; Shree Cement Rises 5%

- Strong Q4 Update Lifts Kalyan Jewellers; Titan Gains Over 3% Too

- Info Edge Gains Another 3% Today After Maha Govt’s 24x7 Delivery Order

- JSPL, Just Dial, Ashok Leyland, Nippon Life Amongst Top Midcap Gainers

- Market Breadth Favours Advances; Advance-Decline Ratio At 2:1

Closing Bell | Indian equity market ended off highs on Thursday led by metals and IT stocks amid positive global cues. The Sensex gained 84.45 points, or 0.17 percent to end at 49,746.21, while the Nifty closed 54.75 points, or 0.37 percent higher at 14,873.80. Broader markets outperformed the benchmarks with the Nifty Smallcap100 index ending over 1 percent higher.

Among sectors, Nifty Metal rallied almost 4 percent followed by Nifty IT, Nifty FMCG and Nifty Auto, while selling was seen in banking and financial indices.

JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Shree Cements, UltraTech Cement and Hindalco Industries led the gains among Nifty50 constituents, while Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, SBI Life, ONGC and Bajaj Finance were the top index losers.

Global shares lifted to record highs by lockdown easing, benign Fed

Stocks in Europe reached record highs on Thursday, buoyed by optimism in Britain over easing lockdown restrictions, while a benign outlook for US interest rates was set to push Wall Street to new heights, a Reuters report said. The European STOXX index of leading 600 companies rose 0.3 percent, hitting a new high of 436.66 points. London's bluechip FTSE 100 index was up 0.2 percent.

NCL Industries | The company's cement production in Q4FY21 rose 33 percent, while dispatches increased 38 percent, YoY

Steel prices expected to marginally move up from current levels

The steel stocks have been rallying for the past few months. Many thought that the rally was done and the steel prices would not rise as they had risen over the past few months, but prices have moved up even more.

Vikash Singh, VP-Metals and Mining at Philip Capital said, “If we look at the Indian steel prices, they are still at a fair discount to the imported prices. So, the prices should either stay consistent at this level or there is a slight possibility of prices going up marginally from current levels. So for the time being we are advising people to hold on to the ferrous names like SAIL, Tata Steel.”

Amit Dixit, Research Analyst at Edelweiss Institutional Equities said that prices and stocks are moving up essentially because of the implementation of production cuts at Tangshan which would reduce steel production by around 22 million tonne for the year. Read more.

Asian Paints | The meeting of the company's board of directors is scheduled on May 12, 2021, to consider the audited standalone financial results for the quarter and financial year ended March 31, 2021; and recommend payment of final dividend, if any, for the financial year ended March 31, 2021.

Ashok Leyland shares jump 7% on plans to create two subsidiaries for green transport solutions

The share price of Ashok Leyland surged 7 percent on Thursday after the commercial vehicles firm announced its plan to create two new subsidiaries to strengthen its footprint in green transport solutions. "Ashok Leyland Ltd through its subsidiary Switch Mobility Ltd, the UK based EV producer of Buses and Vans announced its global expansion plans into India and its plan to create two subsidiary companies," it said in a BSE filing. The first subsidiary Switch Mobility Automotive is being formed to carry on the EV strategy in India, which forms part of its global entity. The second is OHM Global Mobility Private Ltd, which will focus on providing Mobility as a service offering. It further said that together, Switch and OHM will provide a net carbon zero-emission solution to India’s exciting trend towards EV urban buses and LCVs. Read more.

Market Watch: Himanshu Gupta, Globe Capital

- Buy Tata Steel with a stop loss of Rs 920 and a target of Rs 980-1,000.

- Buy Lupin with a stop loss of Rs 1,042 and a target of Rs 1,080.

- Buy Adani Ports with a stop loss of Rs 818 and a target of Rs 860.

IT spending coming from BFSI, healthcare, education; see IT cycle lasting 3-5 years: Gartner

Gartner has revised their IT services spend for 2021 and this is happening for the third straight quarter. They have pegged it now at over $4 trillion. Naveen Mishra, Senior Research Director at Gartner shared his views in an interview with CNBC-TV18. “When we look at the orders coming in, it is coming from the combination of BFSI, healthcare, education and slowly we see government spending into the overall IT as well. So it is a combination of these segments that are contributing,” he said. He further noted that Gartner believes that all the enterprises including IT providers are looking at businesses that evolve around people, technology, workforce and the customer experience. IT companies today are investing into each of these areas making rapid changes so that they can accelerate the digital transformation and prepare themselves for the next five-ten years of the growth opportunities which COVID has laid out in 2020, he added. Read more.

Nifty needs to get past 14,880 level to see range breakout, says Gautam Shah; lists out four best sectors

Nifty has to get past the 14,880 level to see a range breakout and if that happens, the momentum is only going to get better for a move towards 15,500, said Gautam Shah, Founder and Chief Strategist at Goldilocks Premium Research. “14,880 now becomes a very obvious level because the market has corrected from it a few times in the last ten days. A breakout is coming and if index does get pass 14,880, the momentum is only going to get better for a move towards 15,500,” Shah said in an interview with CNBC-TV18. Shah continues to work with bullish mindset. “There is a lot more upside. The broader markets are looking extremely strong and the participation is getting better and better,” he stated. Read more.

Morgan Stanley gives 'overweight’ rating for Reliance Industries

Brokerage firm Morgan Stanley has given an 'overweight' rating for Reliance Industries, stating that the company’s co-lead in India's hydrogen alliance points will increase emphasis on energy transition. Morgan Stanley has set a price target of Rs 2,252 for the stock. The brokerage firm added that this was key to the company’s next leg of investments and multiple re-rating in the medium-term. On Tuesday (April 6), many global energy firms, led by Reliance Industries and US-based engineering company Chart Industries, came together to form a new energy transition coalition — India H2 Alliance (IH2A). The aim of the coalition is to help commercialise hydrogen technologies to build net-zero carbon energy pathways in India, a statement from the coalition said.

Lodha’s peers are better valued due to lower debt, says Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind

The IPO of Macrotech Developers, formerly and popularly known as Lodha Developers is open for subscription with a price band of Rs 483-486 per share. This is the company’s third attempt to go public. Analysts have raised concerns over the company’s deteriorating financials and huge debt. “The financials have substantially deteriorated over the last few years. It had a substantially high amount of debt relatively lower amount of revenues. Although the company’s land banks and size of its unsold portfolios are fairly large we believe the problem is the debt. This IPO is not going to reduce that amount of debt in any meaningful manner,” Deepak Shenoy, founder of Capitalmind told CNBC-TV18. Shenoy believes Macrotech’s peers are better valued due to lower debt and prefers the likes of Godrej Properties and Oberoi Realty over Macrotech’s IPO among Mumbai real estate space. On pricing, he said that Lodha’s Enterprise value was at Rs 42,000 crore which, according to him, was not “meaningfully expensive.” Read more.

Oil falls after US gasoline stocks surge against expectations

Crude prices fell on Thursday after official data showed a big increase in US gasoline stocks, sparking concerns about demand weakening in the world’s biggest oil consumer as crude supplies around the world rise, a Reuters report said. While crude oil stocks in the United States fell more than forecast by analysts, gasoline inventories jumped sharply, also against expectations, the US Department of Energy said on Wednesday.

Vodafone Idea | Vi Business, the enterprise arm of Vodafone Idea Ltd. (VIL), has further strengthened its IoT portfolio with the launch of Integrated IoT solutions for enterprises.

Metals stocks surge as brokerages remain positive on the sector; Nifty Metal up 37% in 2021 YTD

Metal stocks surged on Thursday as brokerages retained their positive outlook on the space going ahead. The rise is aided by rising steel prices, better production and an improved earnings outlook for the March quarter. The Nifty Metal index was up over 2 percent in trade today in comparison with a 0.7 percent rise in benchmark Nifty. The metal index has also outperformed Nifty in 2021 YTD as well as in the last 1 month. In 2021 YTD, the Nifty Metal index has risen over 37 percent as compared to a 6 percent rise in Nifty while in the last 1 month it has advanced over 14 percent versus a half a percent decline in the benchmark. Read more.

Jay Thakkar, Marwadi Shares & Finance

- One can buy Lupin for a target of Rs 1,102 and the second target would be Rs 1,120. One can place the stop loss at Rs 1,022.

- Tata Chemicals has been trending higher and has been forming higher tops and higher bottom. The momentum is absolutely in favour of the bulls and there is no weakness. The stock has provided a fresh break out now. So, one can buy Tata Chemicals targeting Rs 866 to Rs 880 in the short term and place the stop loss at Rs 804.

Macrotech Developers IPO subscribed 29% so far on Day 2; retail portion booked 20%

The initial public offering (IPO) of Lodha Group’s Macrotech Developers has been subscribed 29 percent on April 8 (Thursday), the second day of bidding. The company plans to raise Rs 2,500 crore through its public issue which will close on April 9. The offer has received bids for 1.04 crore equity shares so far as against the offer size of 3.64 crore equity shares, as per the subscription data available on exchanges.

The portion set aside for retail investors has been booked 20 percent, while that of qualified institutional buyers has been subscribed 58 percent. Non-institutional investors have put in bids for 12 percent of the reserved portion and employees’ portion is booked 6 percent till 12:40 pm on day 2.

Alembic Pharmaceuticals | The company's joint venture Aleor Dermaceuticals has received tentative approval from the US Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for Efinaconazole Topical Solution, 10%.

Cadila Healthcare | Zydus Cadila has received final approval from the USFDA to market Ibrutinib Capsules, 70 mg and 140 mg. Ibrutinib belongs to a class of drugs known as kinase inhibitors and is used to treat certain cancers, such as mantle cell lymphoma or marginal zone lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma, and Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia, the company said.