Stock Market Highlights: Sensex, Nifty end higher for 5th consecutive session; banks add gains, Power Grid top gainer

Here are the key highlights from today's trading session:

1. Market gains for 5th straight day; Sensex & Nifty at over 4-month highs

2. Sensex & Nifty gain over 1% each, Nifty Bank up 2%

3. Nifty gains 140 points to 11,162 & Sensex 511 points to 37,930

4. Nifty Bank advances 460 points to 22,762 & Midcap 14 points to 15,402

5. RIL, HDFC, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank top contributors to Nifty

6. PSU Banks higher on reports of privation of some banks, Nifty PSU Bank up 2%

7. Oil marketing companies gain 3-5% amid reports of global companies showing interest in BPCL stake

8. Bajaj Finance closes with a cut of 4% after reporting earnings below estimates

9. SBI Life, ICICI Prudential Life & HDFC Life Insurance end with gains after reporting Q1 earnings

10. Market breadth favours advances; advance-decline ratio at 1:1

Closing Bell: Sensex, Nifty end at day's high; banks, auto led to the gains

Indian indices ended at higher for the fifth consecutive session led by the banks and auto stocks on Tuesday. Sentiment was also upbeat on positive data from trials of three potential COVID-19 vaccines.

At close, the Sensex ended 511 points or 1.37 percent higher to 37,930 while the Nifty50 index ended at 11,162, up 140 points or 1.27 percent higher. Broader markets underperformed in comparison to the benchmarks, Nifty Smallcap 100 index ended 0.41 percent higher while Nifty Midcap 100 index ended 0.09 percent higher.

Barring pharma and FMCG indexes, banking & financials rose the most, over 2 percent followed by realty, media and auto index. 

Power Grid, Indian Oil Corporation, BPCL, Eicher Motors and HDFC were the Nifty50 top gainers while Bajaj twins, Britannia, Asian Paints and Bharti Infratel led the losses.

Mindspace REIT IPO opens on July 27, price band fixed at Rs 274-275

The primary market is finally picking up after a brief lull of four months. After Rossari Biotech, Mindspace Business Parks REIT is planning to raise about Rs 4,500 crore, and will open for subscription on July 27 and will close on July 29.

The price band of the IPO is fixed at Rs 274-275.

Mindspace REIT is the second REIT IPO after Embassy Office Parks REIT. The latter company was the country's first REIT to launch Rs 4,750 crore IPO in March, 2019.

Mindspace REIT will raise fresh issue of units aggregating to Rs 1,000 crore and offer for sale of units of Rs 3,500 crore. The bidding for public issue by anchor investors will open on July 24.

Meanwhile, institutional investors like Singapore's sovereign fund GIC, Capital Group, Fullerton Group and Fidelity Group have already committed Rs 1,125 crore to the company.

According to the company's offer document filed with SEBI, 75 percent of the net offer (Rs 2,531 crore) is reserved for the institutional investors while 25 percent (Rs 844 crore) is for the non-institutional investors.

Government official says Govt has not identified banks for privatization. Cabinet note on new PSE policy does not identify banks/cos; identification to be done later on a case-to-case basis

SBI Life Insurance Company Q1FY21 | The company's net profit rose 5.1 percent to Rs 391 crore from Rs 372 crore, YoY. Gross written premium was up 14 percent at Rs 7,640 crore versus Rs 6,690 crore. Value of new business was down 29 percent at Rs 240 crore as against Rs 330 crore  while new business margin was at 18.7 percent versus 17.9 percent, YoY.

Tata Elxsi Q1FY21 | The company's net profit declined 16.1 percent to Rs 68.87 crore from Rs 82.08 crore in the previous quarter. Revenue fell 8.7 percent to Rs 400.5 crore from Rs 438.9 crore, QoQ. EBITDA decreased 14.6 percent to Rs 92.7 crore from Rs 108.6 crore while EBITDA margin contracted to 23.15 percent as against 24.8 percent, QoQ.

Rupee Update: The Indian currency ended with gains for the third day in a row amidst positive investor sentiment reflecting on equity indices. The rupee ended at 74.74 against the US dollar as compared to Monday's close of 74.92. 

Market Experts View: Shrikant Chouhan of Kotak Securities suggested Tata Steel and Vedanta as trading stocks. He said , "We like Tata Steel which is currently trading at Rs 353-354. From here, we are expecting the stock to move towards Rs 380-385 if there is any breakout sort of formation. Currently it is a very strong buy because it is available at a very low risk reward ratio. With a stop loss at Rs 345, we should look for adding Tata Steel to our trading portfolio.” For Vedanta, he said,“The stock is trading at Rs 108-109 and I feel that it is very close to its breakout level and the stock can move to the levels of Rs 120-122. So, Vedanta is also a buy at this price with a stop loss at Rs 105.”

CBDT Chairman PC Mody tells CNBC-TV18, tax collection so far looks satisfactory, in view of the pandemic. initial trends encouraging & positive

SBI Cards surge over 5% to hit 52-week high on strong June-quarter results

SBI Cards stock price surged over 5 percent on Tuesday to hit a 52-week high after the country's second-largest credit card company reported robust results for the June quarter. The SBI subsidiary reported a 14 percent rise in net profit as well as a 20 percent increase in credit cards during the quarter amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The stock rose as much as 5.6 percent to Rs 794.50 on BSE. Listed in March, the stock jumped over 20 percent in just the last 1 month. The growth in profit was driven primarily by an increase in interest income and lower tax. Read more 

Why brokerages are bullish on this cement major despite a 40% decline in net profit in June quarter

Domestic brokerages retained their bullish view on cement major ACC despite the company reporting a 40.53 percent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 270.95 crore for the quarter ending June. It had reported a net profit of Rs 451.30 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

Revenue of the company also decreased 37.31 percent to Rs 2,600.83 crore in Q1FY21, over Rs 4,149.72 crore in the same period last year. 

The decline was on the back of the COVID-19 led lockdown, due to which the company had to shut down its plants in accordance with government orders. Read more

European markets open higher after European Union leaders reached a deal on a 750 billion euro ($857 billion) recovery fund to help the region recover from the COVID-19 crisis.

Glenmark defends price of its COVID-19 drug favipiravir version

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd defended the pricing of its generic version of favipiravir, FabiFlu, on Tuesday, after India's drug regulator had reportedly sent the company a notice on overpricing.

Shares of the Mumbai-based company fell as much as 5.8percent on Monday after local media reports said the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) pulled up Glenmark regarding the price of the tablet and other concerns.

"Compared to other therapies approved for emergency use in COVID-19, FabiFlu is much more economical and an effective treatment option," the company said in a statement to the exchanges. Glenmark also denied making any claims that "favipiravir alone" is effective in treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 patients. Read more