Market At Close

- Sensex & Nifty Close Lower But Off Lows; Nifty Bank Recovers To End Higher

- Sensex, Nifty & Midcap Index Extend Losing Streak To Five Days

- Axis Bank, SBI & ICICI Help Nifty Bank Turn Positive While HDFC Bank Drags

- Nifty Is Down More Than 900 Pts & Sensex Over 3,300 Points From Record Highs

- Nifty Closes 150 Points Lower At 13,818 & Sensex 5356 Points Lower At 46,874

- Nifty Bank Gains 671 Points From Lows To Close 74 Points Higher At 30,358

- Midcap Index Slips 125 Pts To Close At 20,990

- Realty & IT Indices Fell The Most With Both Indices Recording Fall of Over 2% Each

- 32 Nifty Stocks Close In The Red; HUL, Maruti, Wipro & HDFC Bank Top Losers

- Maruti & HUL Slip While Axis Bank Rises After Q3 Earnings

- Colgate & DB Corp Gain While  Radico Khaitan, Welspun & Route Mobile Slip After Earnings

- MTNL Surges 125 After The Official Announcement Of ‘No Merger’ With BSNL

- Bank Of Baroda & United Spirits Fall Over 9% After Oct-Dec Earnings

- Fertiliser Companies Surge; FACT & NFL Gain 10% Each

- Market Breadth Neutral With Advance-Decline Ratio At 1:1

Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst, Deen Dayal Investments

13,700 has acted as good support for the market. What needs to be seen is if we can keep above this level over the next few days. If we break 13,700, we could slide down to 13,500-13,600 and then to 13,200. On the upside, we have a stiff resistance at 14,500 and only if we can close above that can we start thinking on the long side and accumulate buy positions.

Closing Bell | Indian equity benchmark indices ended a percent lower on Thursday dragged mainly by selling in IT stocks and PSU banks amid weak global cues. The Sensex ended 535.57 points or 1.13 percent lower at 46,874.36, while the Nifty declined 149.95 points or 1.07 percent to close at 13,817.55. Broader markets declined with Nifty Smallcap100 and Nifty Midcap100 down 0.69 percent and 0.59 percent, respectively.

Among sectors, Nifty IT and Nifty Realty fell the most over 2 percent followed by Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty FMCG and Nifty Auto. On the Nifty, HUL, Maruti Suzuki, Wipro, HDFC Bank and Power Grid Corp were the top losers, while top gainers were Axis Bank, SBI, IOC, BPCL and GAIL India.

Keshav Lahoti, Associate Equity Analyst, Angel Broking

Maruti Suzuki Ltd. reported consolidated revenue growth of 13.2% for Q3FY2021 to Rs 22,241 crore due to strong demand for vehicles as the economy is coming back to normal, was in line with our expectation. In this quarter, sales volume increased due to pent up demand also. During the quarter the company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,996.7 crore as compared to net profit of Rs 1,587.4 crore in Q3FY20 was up by 25.8%. Going forward, new product launches will be key monitorable for the company. We are bullish on the company as we expect good demand for vehicles for the company.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited | Group of Ministers has deferred the BSNL-MTNL merger or MTNL being made a subsidiary to BSNL mainly due to financial reasons including high debt on MTNL. The Union Cabinet, however, will take a final call on the issue.

Tata Power Company | The company has received letter of acceptance for GSECL project worth Rs 460 crore.

Stove Kraft IPO subscribed 7.3 times so far on last day of bidding

Stove Kraft's Rs 412.62-crore initial public offer (IPO) was subscribed 7.3 times so far on Thursday, the last day of the bidding process. The issue received bids for 4.3 crore equity shares against an offer size of 58.94 lakh shares. As of 2:15 PM, the reserved portion of retail investors was subscribed 21.54 times while non-institutional investors subscribed 3.61 times. The portion set aside for qualified institutional buyers has seen a subscription of 44.54 times.

Auto sector facing long term, structural and deep slowdown: Automotive industry body

The recent recovery in the passenger vehicle and two-wheeler sales is a bright spot for India’s auto industry which like other sectors was impacted due to COVID-19 and the lockdown. However, India’s automobile industry body has now expressed concern about the long-term health of the sector.

“There is a long term, structural and deep slowdown in the auto sector”, said a study conducted by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

“The numbers show a clear long term structural slowdown in the Indian automobile market across segments even before COVID began. For instance, the passenger vehicle market 10-year CAGR over the decade FY2000 to FY2010 was 10.3 percent which dipped to 3.6 percent in the decade FY2010 to FY2020. In the last 5-year period from FY-14-15 to FY19-20, it has further dipped to just 1.3 percent CAGR”, said Rajesh Menon, Director General of SIAM. Read more here.

Sequent Scientific | The company has received ‘Certificate of Suitability’ (CEP) for its generic active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) Diclazuril in the EU.

TeamLease Q3FY21 | The company's consolidated net profit declined 10.2 percent to Rs 22.9 crore from Rs 25.5 crore, YoY. Consolidated EBITDA was down 9.8 percent at Rs 24.8 crore against Rs 27.5 crore, YoY. EBITDA margin stood at 1.9 percent against 2 percent, YoY.

IDBI Bank Q3FY21 | The bank reported a net profit of Rs 378.4 crore as against a loss of Rs 5,763 crore, YoY. NII was up 18.1 percent at Rs 1,809.5 crore as against Rs 1,532.4 crore, YoY. Gross NPA fell to 23.52 percent from 25.08 percent, while net NPA declined to 1.94 percent from 2.67 percent, QoQ. Gross NPA decreased 8.6 percent to Rs 37,559 crore from Rs 41,091 crore and net NPA fell 28.3 percent to Rs 2,411 crore from Rs 3,363 crore, sequentially. Provisions were at Rs 796.3 crore against Rs 581.1 crore QoQ and against Rs 521.9 crore YoY.

Gold demand plunged to 11-year low in 2020

Global demand for gold fell to its lowest in 11 years in 2020 as the coronavirus upended the market, triggering huge stockpiling by investors but collapsing sales of jewellery and purchases by central banks, an industry report said on Thursday. The pandemic also transformed the geography of the bullion trade, sucking gold from Asia, where most gold is sold as jewellery, to Europe and the United States, where investors are the dominant consumers. It also pushed the value of gold up 25% in 2020, because investors have much more impact on prices than the jewellery market. Global demand for gold fell to 3,759.6 tonnes last year, down 14% from 2019 and the first year below 4,000 tonnes since 2009, the World Gold Council (WGC) said in its latest quarterly report.

Granules India Q3FY21 | The company’s net profit during the quarter surged 1.3 times to Rs 146.8 croer from Rs 64 crore, while revenue jumped 20 percent to Rs 844.5 crore from Rs 704 crore, YoY.

Goa Carbon Q3FY21 | The company posted a net loss of Rs 1.3 crore as compared to a loss of Rs 4.1 crore in a year ago period. Revenue declined 24.1 percent to Rs 81.2 crore from Rs 107 crore, YoY.

Bank of India raises Rs 750 crore by issuing bonds

State-run Bank of India on Wednesday said it has raised Rs 750 crore by issuing Basel III compliant bonds. "Bank of India has raised Rs 750 crore via Basel III compliant additional tier 1 (AT-1) bonds on January 27, 2021 on private placement basis," the bank said in a release.

The issue was over-subscribed with receipt of bids of up to Rs 1,017 crore against the issue size of Rs 750 crore. The coupon on the bonds was 9.04 percent for five years and it carries a call option, it added.

Bharti Airtel | The company became the first telco to demonstrate and orchestrate LIVE 5G service over a commercial network in Hyderabad city. Airtel did this over its existing liberalised spectrum in the 1800 MHz band through the NSA (Non Stand Alone) network technology.

Stove Kraft IPO subscribed 4.18 times so far on Day 3

The Rs 413 crore-IPO of Stove Kraft has been subscribed 4.18 times on Thursday, the final day of bidding. Investors have put in total bids for 2.46 crore equity shares against the IPO size of 58.94 lakh equity shares (excluding anchor book), according to data available on exchanges. The portion set aside for qualified institutional buyers has seen a subscription of 47 percent, while the reserved portion of non-institutional investors has been subscribed 2.13 times, and that of retail investors, 15.7 times.

Emami | Shares of Emami traded higher after the company reported 44.67 percent YoY rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 208.96 crore for December quarter 2020. Revenue from operations was up 14.89 percent at Rs 933.61 crore in the quarter under review as against Rs 812.64 crore in the same period a year ago.

Oil falls on demand fears, strengthening dollar

Oil slid in Asia morning trade on Thursday despite a huge drop in US crude stock, as the strength in the U.S. dollar and fresh fuel demand worries due to travel curbs and delays with coronavirus vaccines weighed on prices, a Reuters report said. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 33 cents, or 0.62 percent, to $52.52 a barrel, erasing Wednesday's gain. Brent crude futures fell 36 cents, or 0.65 percent, to $55.45 a barrel, after losing 10 cents on Wednesday.