Stock Market Highlights: Sensex ends 385 points higher, Nifty reclaims 17,000; ITC, Infy up 2%

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HDFC AMC attractive even at current levels, target price Rs 2,800: Ambareesh Baliga

Independent market expert Ambareesh Baliga likes KPIT from the midcap spae from a medium- as well as long-term perspective. "If you're talking large caps, I will still go with TCS and Infosys although I find them a bit expensive at these levels. If you need exposure to IT, I think these are the best two stocks to be there. I don't see an immediate sort of a move. I think this move will be limited to the time when we see the Q3 results in early January but after that, I think we could see some correction. I won't like to really go out and buy immediately but on a correction," he said. 

HDFC AMC attractive even at current levels, target price Rs 2,800: Ambareesh Baliga

Independent market expert Ambareesh Baliga finds HDFC AMC shares attractive even at the current levels. "This is quite a profitable mutual fund and you have an AUM of about Rs 4.4 lakh crore as of September, and this AUM grew about 23 percent YoY. They have a market share of about 12 percent. It has a very strong brand franchise of HDFC as such... extremely good distribution strength, operational capabilities are extremely good because of which you normally get a premium valuation for the stock. We've seen some amount of weakness in the past couple of months. That's what makes it interesting at these levels," he said.  

"If you look at the SIP flows, they've increased for about Rs 980 crore in Q1 to about Rs 1,080 crore in Q2. They recently launched a new scheme, HDFC Multicap Fund, which means that the flows for third quarter will be better than what we've seen the second quarter. They have been able to keep the cost low because of digitalisation. If you look at the dividend, it's been a healthy dividend payout, about 52 percent of the profits are paid out. So I'm expecting EPS of about Rs 80 for FY23. We should see levels of about Rs 2,800 - although we have seen the stock about Rs 3,000 but I'm keeping a target of Rs 2,800," he added.

IT big theme of 2022: Pashupati Advani  

Pashupati Advani of Global Foray believes IT is going to be in fashion. "It is being helped by the fact that the rupee is getting weaker. IT has gone out of favour and then it is coming back slowly; people are coming back into TCS, Infosys and Wipro. They are also looking at midcap tech stocks... Today our IT is considered world class like before," he said. 

"That is a big, big change in people's perceptions. TCS is like a household name all over the world. I think that has made a big difference, and we will see it in this cycle. As long as we are able to deliver and with all the companies needing AI, they are coming to us, and that business is going to come. So, you know, I am quite bullish on that sector simply because of what is going on. I think that there are opportunities there. Again I think it will be midcap IT that will get absorbed, or will die. They will either lose their business or get acquired. So I think that is the space to look into," he added.

Rupee ends higher at 75.24 against US dollar

The rupee closed at 75.24 against the greenback as against its previous close of 75.55.

Market At Close | Sensex, Nifty rise for 3rd day as Omicron concerns ebb

Here are some highlights: 

--PSU stocks, ITC, Infosys lift market; banks drag

--Nifty Bank gains 162 points to 35,191; midcap index rises 268 points to 29,927

--Tech stocks continue to gain momentum; Infosys, Tech Mahindra hit record highs

--PVR rises 3% ahead of big movie release on Friday

--Divi’s, JSW Steel, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Maruti top Nifty losers

--Zee falls 4% despite positive note by brokerages post-Sony deal

--Firstsource, Birlasoft, Cholamandalam Investment, Crompton top midcap gainers

--Metropolis, L&T Infotech, SAIL, MCX, Dixon, JK Cement top midcap losers

--Biocon rises 4% ahead of company’s corporate announcement

--Jubilant FoodWorks up 3% on reports of price hike

--PSU bank stocks rise as reports suggest government mulling reducing stake to 26%

--Market breadth favours bulls; advance-decline ratio at 2:1

Market At Close | Power Grid, Indian Oil, ONGC, ITC, Bajaj Finance top blue-chip gainers

On the other hand, Divi's, JSW Steel, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, UltraTech, Maruti Suzuki and Hindalco were the worst hit among the 15 laggards in the index.

Here's how the Sensex pack fared:

Closing Bell | Sensex up 385 points at 57,315, Nifty50 reclaims 17,050

The 30-scrip index ended 384.7 points or 0.7 percent higher at 57,315.3 and the broader Nifty50 benchmark settled at 17,051.8, up 96.4 points or 0.6 percent from its previous close. (Read more on the closing bell)

Corporate Affairs Ministry approves change in 'Shriram Transport Finance Company' name to Shriram Finance 

Shriram Transport Finance shares were up 3.1 percent at Rs 1,208.3 apiece minutes before the closing bell. 

Dish TV receives copy of petition filed by group of shareholders against company, Yes Bank

Dish TV shares were down 0.3 percent at Rs 17.6 apiece on BSE. Yes Bank was down 0.9 percent at Rs 13.6 apiece. 

Carborundum Universal to acquire Germany-based Awuko Abrasive's assets 

Carborundum Universal will acquire the main assets of Germany-based Awuko Abrasive for 6 million euros. Carborundum Universal shares were down 0.8 percent at Rs 921.6 apiece on BSE.

Hero MotoCorp to hike prices by up to Rs 2,000 from January 4

Hero MotoCorp shares were up 1.9 percent at Rs 2,395 apiece on BSE in the final minutes of the session. 

SEBI chairman has suggestions on new listings; here's what he says

At a time when the market is gripped by the IPO fever, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman Ajay Tyagi said that the interest of investors must be protected during primary listings. In order to do so, companies should give a better rationale behind deciding the issue price and greater transparency from merchant bankers and issuers would be needed.

Market Watch: Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder of Zerodha and Co-Founder and CIO of True Beacon

On investments in various asset classes

I think gold is becoming interesting, all of a sudden. At any point when actual yield, actual interest rates are negative, it's a good time to be in gold. From a more holistic standpoint, I think crypto and things like Bitcoin, I would not want to comment on because the regulation around it is not out yet. I am fairly conservative and the peak at which we sit today, notwithstanding the little bit of correction we have witnessed in the last month or two, I would lean more towards safer investment classes possibly debt, things with a sovereign guarantee, tax free bonds, gold and a small amount of allocation to equity, and probably build a conservative portfolio at the current juncture when things are quite expensive from a valuation or a multiple standpoint.

GAIL board approves interim dividend of Rs 4 per share

GAIL's board gave nod to an interim dividend of Rs 4 per equity share for FY22, according to a regulatory filing. A record date of December 31 has been fixed for the dividend, it said. 

GAIL shares were up 1.5 percent at Rs 132.2 apiece on BSE after the announcement. (Read more on GAIL dividend)