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

Jubilant Life Sciences shares hit 52-week high after it gets nod to market remdesivir

The share price of Jubilant Life Sciences hit a fresh 52-week high after the company received the Indian drug regulator’s nod to market the antiviral drug remdesivir for restricted emergency use in India for the treatment of severe COVID-19.

The stock rallied 4.43 percent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 753.50 apiece on the BSE. The stock has jumped a whopping 227 percent from its recent 52-week low of Rs 230 hit on March 25, 2020.

On Monday, the company announced that its subsidiary, Jubilant Generics Limited, had received approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to manufacture and market the investigational antiviral drug remdesivir for 100 mg/vial (lyophilized injection) for restricted emergency use in India for the treatment of severe COVID-19. Click here to read more

Bajaj Finance

Market Watch: Jai Bala of cashthechaos.com

"The markets are a little bit stretched, no doubt about it but the markets have been defying these strict parameters for quite some time now. If you had been patient about what the market has been doing, you would be on the right side of the market and until last week the markets had one-day up, one-day down. The markets never had a follow-through on the downside and then it started going up. As an alternate picture when the markets crossed 10,900, it is 11,150-11,200 and we are there. Today’s high of 11,164 - if you look at the intraday charts, it doesn’t look like that is a final high. The markets are probably going to make one more high above the morning high either today or maybe tomorrow. If it does that on a lower momentum, which I think it could, then you might want to tighten your stops on the longs and be prepared – there is an outlier case where if the markets don’t respond to the resistance at about 11,200-11,225, the market could see a spike up of about 11,600 but don’t go into the market thinking that the markets are going to give you 11,600. However, you shouldn’t be getting out early. If you are long right now, don’t get out early. Keep trailing stop losses and the trailing stop for Nifty is about 10,960 to 10,920 at the moment. Hold on to that."

Gold hovers near nine-year high as virus fears drive safe-haven demand

Gold rose on Tuesday, hovering near a nine-year peak hit in the last session, as worries over a spike in COVID-19 cases and expectations for inflation from more economic stimulus measures boosted demand for the safe-haven metal. Spot gold was up 0.1 percentat USD 1,817.23 per ounce by 0300 GMT, after hitting its highest since September 2011 at USD 1,820.06 on Monday. US gold futures were little changed at USD 1,817.80. "What's really driving gold market is stimulus and we are going to get more of it. Its the eye candy that's driving sentiment right now," said Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at financial services firm AxiCorp.

Den Networks shares hit 52-week high after stellar Q1FY21 earnings

The share price of Den Networks rallied 10 percent on Tuesday after the company reported higher profits despite lower revenues in the June quarter ended 2020. The stock rose as much as 10 percent to Rs 109.60 per share on the NSE. The stock has gained about 330 percent to current levels in the last four months. On a consolidated basis, the company reported a 3.8 percent year-on-year (YoY) decline in its revenues to Rs 301 crore in the June quarter. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) surged over 55 percent YoY to Rs 63.93 crore.The share price of Den Networks rallied 10 percent on Tuesday after the company reported higher profits despite lower revenues in the June quarter ended 2020.

Market Watch: Rahul Sharma, Head-Technicals & Derivatives Research, JM Financial Services

On pharma & autos

There are two sectors, which are clearly leading or behaving in a much stronger way, one is the Nifty pharma index and second is a Nifty auto index. Pharma index has outperformed the broader markets and Nifty auto index has performed in line with the Nifty. So there is still some more upside left in Nifty auto stocks but at the same time if the broader shift has to reverse then even auto stocks may find it difficult to perform on the upside. So our advice would be to book profits in auto space but on the pharma sector, we can still hold on to our longs and we have seen that in the past, whenever Nifty has sounded difficult, it is pharma which has done well and this year after five long years of underperformance pharma index has come back into its own and after last two months of consolidation, it seems ready for another round of upmove in the coming few weeks.

Telecom stocks trade lower after SC reserves order on AGR payment

Telecom stocks were trading lower on Tuesday with Vodafone Idea slipping the most after the Supreme Court reserved its order on the government's petition to allow the companies to make staggered payments of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues. The share price of Vodafone Idea plunged as much as 10 percent to Rs 8.20 apiece on the NSE. Bharti Airtel was trading 0.36 percent lower at Rs 573.70 per share. Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel sought 15 years to repay their dues to the government while Tata Teleservices has said that a seven to 10 year period should suffice for them. The next hearing has been scheduled for August 10.

Buzzing Stock | Jubilant Life Sciences’ shares at 52-week high; surge over 200% in 4 months

Shares of Jubilant Life Sciences hit a fresh 52-week high after the company received Indian drug regulator’s nod to market the antiviral drug remdesivir for restricted emergency use in India for the treatment of severe COVID-19. The stock rallied 4.43 percent to a 52-week high of Rs 753.50 apiece on the BSE. The stock has jumped a whoopping 227 percent from its recent 52-week low of Rs 230 hit on March 25, 2020.

The company announced that its subsidiary, Jubilant Generics Limited, has received approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to manufacture and market the investigational antiviral drug remdesivir for 100 mg/vial (lyophilized injection) for restricted emergency use in India for the treatment of severe COVID-19.

Jubilant’s remdesivir product will be marketed under the brand name ‘JUBI-R’ in India and will be made available in 100 mg vials (injectable). It would be administered intravenously in a hospital setting under the supervision of a medical practitioner. The company will distribute the drug in the Indian market through its distribution network and will be available by the first week of August 2020, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Rupee Opens | Rupee opened at over 2-week high against the US dollar at 74.80 against the previous close of 74.92.

Technical View | The markets achieved their target of 11,100 upon opening itself! We should now be headed towards the levels of 11,500 - this may not be a one way move, but ideally that should be the direction of this market. Hence a "buy on dips" strategy on the Nifty can be implemented. Every fall would be a chance to enter a buy trade, said Manish Hathiramani, Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments.

Top stock ideas from Shubham Agarwal of Quantsapp Advisory

“The first stock call is a buy on Siemens and if you look at the behaviour there, the stock was consolidating for quote sometime. But even in that consolidation gradually longs are getting accumulated in the derivative data, so there was one hurdle of 1,200 Strike Call option, but now because the future is very close to that level there is a very good possibility that we might see a breakout happening from that level. So Siemens is a buy, we can participate this with a Call option. So a 1,200 Strike Call option can be bought for a target of Rs 46 with a stop loss at Rs 29.”

“The second buy call will be on Berger Paints, the entire paint as a sector has started performing after a long consolidation. Berger Paints looks promising for a target of at least Rs 550-560, so an option trade again here. 540 Strike Call option can be bought for a target of Rs 15 with a stop loss at Rs 7.”

“Lastly a buy call on Biocon, so even though Biocon has been consolidating for quote sometime and charts shows no evidence of any breakout, but if we closely look at derivative data, the derivative data is still suggesting that it is a kind of a long unwinding cycle which is continuing in Biocon and now because the pattern is matured and the consolidation has moved to an apex there is a good possibility that we will see a breakout happening in Biocon in 1-2 days’ timeframe. So a 440 Strike Call option can be bought for a target of Rs 18 and stop loss at Rs 9.”

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 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 despite 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.

Here's the list of all the companies that will be reporting earnings for April-June quarter today