The domestic equity market corrected sharply on Friday, led by broader selling pressure. IT, pharma and PSU banks declined sharply. Rising coronavirus cases across US, Europe and China weighed on investors' sentiment.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, dropped 549.49 points or 1.11% to 49,034.67. The Nifty 50 index lost 161.90 points or 1.11% at 14,433.70.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.18%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index skid 0.97%.

Sellers outpaced buyers. On the BSE, 1088 shares rose and 1936 shares fell. A total of 139 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 9,31,05,607 with 19,94,440 deaths. India reported 2,13,027 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,51,918 deaths while 1,01,62,738 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Economy:

The government said that over 545 lakh tonnes of Paddy have been procured during the ongoing Kharif Marketing Season. This is an increase of 26.48% against the last year corresponding purchase of around 431 lakh tonnes. Agriculture Ministry said, government continues to procure Kharif crops at its Minimum Support Price from farmers as per its existing MSP Schemes. The Ministry said, more than 73 lakh paddy farmers have been benefited from current Kharif Marketing Season Procurement Operations with MSP value of over one lakh three thousand crore rupees.

Earnings Today:

Hathway Cable & Datacom (up 0.73%), L&T Finance Holdings (down 2.57%), Shoppers Stop (down 1.72%) will announce Q3 earnings today.

Banking sector major HDFC Bank (down 0.32%) will announce Q3 earnings on Saturday (16 January 2021). Apollo Pipes (down 0.99%) and IRB InvIT Fund (up 0.36%) will also announce their quarterly earnings tomorrow.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index fell 2.24% to 26,362.80. The index has fallen 2.38% in two sessions.

Tech Mahindra (down 3.92%), Wipro (down 3.66%), Coforge (down 3.65%), MindTree (down 2.73%), Info Edge India (down 2.6%), Infosys (down 2.08%), Mphasis (down 1.86%) and TCS (down 0.62%) tumbled.

Earnings Impact:

HCL Technologies slipped 3.67% at Rs 990. The IT firm's consolidated net profit rose 31.1% to Rs 3,982 crore on 6.4% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 19,302 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019.

Sequentially, consolidated net profit rose 26.7% and revenue increased 3.80% in Q3 FY21 over Q2 FY21. EBITDA grew 9.9% to Rs 5,443 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q2 FY21. EBITDA margin improved to 28.2% in Q3 FY21 from 26.6% in Q2 FY21.

The company's revenue in constant currency grew 3.5% QoQ and rose 1.1% year-on-year (YoY). The company expects QoQ revenue to grow between 2% to 3% in constant currency for Q4 FY21, including DWS contribution. EBIT is expected to be between 21% and 21.5% for FY2021.

Tata Steel Long Products hit an upper circuit of 20% to Rs 859.85. The long steel maker reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 304.40 crore in Q3 FY21 compared with net loss of Rs 112.19 crore in Q3 FY20. Net sales during the quarter jumped 36.5% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1364.17 crore.

Den Network rose 2.23% to Rs 68.80 after the cable distribution company posted 238.8% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 65.57 crore on a 7.6% rise in net sales to Rs 342.18 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019.

Consolidated EBITDA grew by 12% year on year to Rs 65 crore in Q3 December 2020 from Rs 58 crore in Q3 December 2019. EBITDA margin slightly improved to 19% in Q3 December 2020 from 18% in Q3 December 2019.

On the operational front, subscription revenue was at Rs 201 crore (down 3% YoY), Placement/Marketing income was at Rs 106 crore (up 22% YoY) and Activation revenue came in at Rs 28 crore (up 58% YoY ) in the third quarter.

HFCL fell 4.36% to Rs 31.80 after consolidated net profit jumped 86.7% to Rs 85.11 crore on 49.7% increase in net sales to Rs 1,277.48 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019.

PVR added 2.58% to Rs 1472. The multiplex chain operator reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 49.2 crore in Q3 December 2020 as compared to a consolidated net profit of Rs 36.3 crore registered in Q3 December 2019. Consolidated revenue from operations slipped 95% to Rs 45.4 crore in Q3 FY21 from Rs 915.7 crore in Q3 FY20.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Bharti Airtel added 4.06% to Rs 603.75. Global index provider MSCI on Thursday said it will take a decision on increasing the weightage of Bharti Airtel at upcoming index review in February.

GAIL (India) declined 2.36% to 139.30. The board of GAIL (India) approved a proposal to buyback upto 6,97,56,641 equity shares (1.55% equity) at Rs 150 each for an aggregate consideration not exceeding Rs 1046.35 crore.

Trident rose 2.16% to Rs 14.69 after the company said it secured a patent for 'Fabric and Method of Manufacturing Fabric' by European Patent office. It further said that the present invention comprises a method of producing a fabric by subjecting the fabric to a special treatment, thereby obtaining increased air space in the resultant fabric.

Bharat Dynamics (BDL) shed 1.38% to Rs 343.10. BDL and Thales have signed a Teaming Agreement to work in partnership on the STARStreak Air Defence system with the support of both the Governments of India and the United Kingdom.

Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI) fell 2.72% to Rs 4266.75. LTI plans to expand its multi-year, global alliance with IBM to help businesses transform their operations through open hybrid cloud adoption. With the proposed center, LTI will help their clients migrate and modernize core business applications leveraging IBM's open hybrid cloud platform built on Red Hat OpenShift.

Global Markets:

European shares declined while Asian shares ended mixed on Friday as a re-emergence of COVID-19 cases in China pulled back the positive sentiment generated by U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan.

China reported the most daily cases of COVID-19 in more than 10 months on Friday, as local governments and factory owners began in offering incentives to the country's millions of migrant workers not to return to their home provinces for the Lunar New Year holidays in February.

Shares of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi plunged in Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump's administration placed the firm on a blacklist of alleged Chinese military companies.

US President-elect Joe Biden unveiled a $1.9 trillion coronavirus plan Thursday to end a crisis of deep human suffering by speeding up vaccines and pumping out financial help to those struggling with the pandemic's prolonged economic fallout.

Biden proposed $1,400 checks for most Americans, which on top of $600 provided in the most recent COVID-19 bill would bring the total to the $2,000 that Biden has called for. It would also extend a temporary boost in unemployment benefits and a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures through September.

In US, stocks fell slightly on Thursday, with tech shares declining the most. Donald Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice when the House voted 232-197 on Wednesday to charge him with inciting riots at the Capitol.

Meanwhile, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said an interest rate hike is coming no time soon and pushed back against suggestions that the central bank might start tapering its bond purchases any time soon.

After a weak start, the domestic equity benchmarks reversed losses and ended with decent gains on Thursday. The indices witnessed volatility due to expiry of weekly index options on the NSE. The Nifty closed just shy of the 14,600 mark. Auto stocks, despite intraday volatility, managed to extend gains for sixth consecutive session.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, added 91.84 points or 0.19% to 49,584.16. The Nifty 50 index gained 30.75 points or 0.21% at 14,595.60.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index advanced 0.29% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.17%.

The market breadth was almost even. On the BSE, 1506 shares rose and 1504 shares fell. A total of 173 shares were unchanged.

Investors looked forward to US President-elect Joe Biden's major COVID-19 relief package to be unveiled on Thursday.

Economy:

India's wholesale prices rose by 1.22% year-on-year in December 2020, slowing from a 1.55% gain in November 2020 and 2.76% in December 2019.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings projected India's medium-term growth to slow down to 6.5% from FY23 onward, after the initial rebound to 11% in FY22, as the economy suffers lasting damage from the pandemic. The agency downgraded its projection of supply-side potential growth to 5.1% annually over the five-year period from 2020-25 compared to its pre-pandemic expectation of 7%.

Earnings Today:

Den Networks (down 0.59%), HFCL (up 4.40%), Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (down 0.12%) and Tata Steel Long Products (up 6.27%) will announce Q3 earnings today.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index rose 0.40% to 10,249.30, extending gains for sixth day in a row. The index has added 9.27% in six sessions.

Tata Motors (up 1.05%), Eicher Motors (up 0.67%), Maruti Suzuki (up 0.25%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 0.24%), Hero MotoCorp (up 0.14%) and TVS Motor Company (up 0.07%) advanced.

Ashok Leyland (down 2.14%), Bharat Forge (down 1.02%) and Bajaj Auto (down 0.80%) declined.

Earnings Impact:

Infosys fell 1.35% to Rs 1369. On a consolidated basis, the IT major's net profit jumped 16.6% to Rs 5,197 crore on a 12.3% rise in revenues to Rs 25,927 crore in Q3 December 2020 (Q3 FY21) over Q3 December 2019 (Q3 FY20).

Sequentially, Infosys net profit rose 7.3% and revenue increased 5.5% in Q3 FY21 over Q2 September 2020 (Q2 FY21). Profit before tax (PBT) stood at Rs 7,151 crore in Q3 FY21, gaining 5.9% over Rs 6,750 crore in Q2 FY21. Income tax expense rose 2.3% to Rs 1,936 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q2 FY21.

Operating profit rose 5.8% to 6,589 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q2 FY21. Operating margin stood at 25.4% in Q3 FY21, higher than 25.3% in Q2 FY21 and 21.9% in Q3 FY20. The company has revised FY21 growth guidance upward to 4.5% to 5% in constant currency term. Operating margin for FY21 is revised upward in the range of 24% to 24.5%.

Wipro lost 1.05% to Rs 453.95. The IT major, after market hours yesterday, 13 January 2021, posted a 20.37% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,968 crore on a 3.68% increase in revenue to Rs 15,670 crore in Q3 December 2020 (Q3 FY21) over Q2 September 2020 (Q2 FY21).

The company's consolidated net profit grew by 20.85% and revenue has risen by 1.29% in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20. Profit before tax (PBT) in Q3 FY21 stood at Rs 3850.4 crore, up by 20% from Rs 3,207.30 crore in Q2 FY21. Total tax expense during the third quarter increased 18% to Rs 852.6 crore in Q3 December 2020.

Wipro's IT services segment revenue came at $2,071 million in Q3 FY21, a sequential growth of 3.9%. The company's non-GAAP constant currency IT services segment revenue increased by 3.4% quarter on quarter. The company said its IT services operating margin grew by 243 basis points quarter on quarter to 21.7% in Q3 FY21.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) jumped 9.40% to Rs 1007.45. The Union Cabinet on January 13 has approved procurement of 83 Light Combat Aircrafts (LCA) 'Tejas' from the company for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

IndusInd Bank added 2.78% to Rs 968.95. Sebi has granted additional two weeks to promoters of the bank for infusion of residual capital in lieu of conversion of shares warrants issued to them worth over Rs 2,695.26 crore.

Indian Bank jumped 5.78% to Rs 95.40. The bank has raised Tier 2 Capital Fund through private placement of Basel III compliant Tier 2 bonds aggregating to Rs 2,000 crore at a coupon of 6.18% p.a. payable annually.

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) slumped 10.44% to Rs 66.90 after the offer for sale (OFS) opened for non-retail investors today, 14 January 2021. The floor price for the OFS has been set at Rs 64 per share, at a 14.2% discount to SAIL's closing price of Rs 74.70 on Wednesday, 13 January 2021.

Through the OFS, the Indian government proposes to sell 20,65,26,264 shares (representing 5% stake), with an option to sell an additional 5% stake or 20,65,26,264 equity shares in case of oversubscription. With this, the total OFS size stands at 41,30,52,528 shares, which is calculated at Rs 2,664 crore.

As on 15:15 IST, the OFS received subscription for 52,81,32,002 shares or 292.25% against the base non-retail offer size of 18,07,10,481 shares.

Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers rose 1.78% to Rs 197.60. The company secured a contract from the Transport and Harbours Department, Ministry of Public Works, Government of Guyana, for designing, construction and supply of an ocean-going passenger and cargo vessel at the cost of $12.7 million.

Global Markets:

European stocks advanced while most Asian markets ended higher on Thursday despite ongoing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic and political turbulence in the U.S. Vaccination rollouts across the continent have raised hopes that an end to the pandemic is on its way.

Trial data published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine reportedly showed Johnson & Johnson's one-shot COVID-19 vaccine is safe and appears to generate an immune response in both young and elderly volunteers. J&J's vaccine candidate, which only requires one dose, could simplify logistics for health-care providers. The two vaccines currently authorized by the Food and Drug Administration from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna require two doses about three to four weeks apart.

In US, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed slightly higher on Wednesday, led by tech shares, as traders kept an eye on interest rates, the political uncertainty coming out of Washington and a still raging pandemic. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to release details on his economic plan on Thursday.

The S&P 500 index gained 0.2% to end the day at 3,809.84, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.4% to 13,128.95. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed just 8.22 points lower, or 0.03%, at 31,060.47.

Meanwhile, turmoil in Washington continues with the House on Wednesday impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump for inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week.

The riots led to the death of five people and raised questions in the U.S. and around the world about the integrity of U.S. democracy and a smooth transfer of presidential power. The Wall Street Journal reported that it was the fastest impeachment vote assembled in the nation's history.

The domestic equity barometers ended almost flat after a volatile session on Wednesday. Select autos and PSU banks advanced while pharma and financial stocks lagged.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 24.79 points or 0.05% to 49,492.32. The Nifty 50 index added 1.40 points or 0.01% to 14,564.85.

The sentiment remained upbeat after the domestic retail inflation cooled off in December, falling below RBI's upper tolerance limit of 6%. Investors across the globe continued to monitor the developments on the US political front as the US House of Representatives is expected to vote on an impeachment motion against President Trump today.

The broader market underperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.63%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.38%.

Sellers outpaced buyers. On the BSE, 1240 shares rose and 1824 shares fell. A total of 148 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

The country's retail inflation, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased to 4.59% in the month of December mainly due to decline in food prices.

The CPI inflation had been continuously been above RBI's upper tolerance band of 6% for the past eight months until November. Inflation peaked in October to 7.61% and had fallen to 6.93% in November.

India's factory output, measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP), witnessed a contraction of 1.9% for November 2020, reverting back to the declining territory after rising in the previous two months, data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MOSPI) showed on Tuesday.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 9,16,05,941 with 19,62,345 deaths. India reported 2,14,507 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,51,529 deaths while 1,01,29,111 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Earnings Today:

Infosys (up 1.15%) and Wipro (down 0.05%) will announce Q3 earnings today.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Bank index rose 0.59% to 32,530, rising for second consecutive session. The index has added 1.66% in two sessions.

The banking index gained 1.06% to hit the day's high at 32,683.50, which is also a record high for the index.

Bank Of Baroda (up 6.36%), SBI (up 4.38%), IndusInd Bank (up 1.60%), ICICI Bank (up 1.47%) and Axis Bank (up 1.37%) advanced.

Bandhan Bank (down 4.22%), IDFC First Bank (down 2.65%), Federal Bank (down 1.90%), RBL Bank (down 1.40%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.10%) and HDFC Bank (down 0.61%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Bharti Airtel added 2.30% to Rs 578.75. The telecom operator said that it has received approvals for its relevant downstream investments and it is initiating process to revise its foreign investment limit to 100% with an immediate effect.

Tech Mahindra rose 0.51% to Rs 1069.55. The company said that it has agreed to acquire 100% shareholding of Payments Technology Services for a cash consideration of $9 million. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Payments Technology Services entity is a stepdown subsidiary of Fidelity Information Services (FIS). The company is a payments solutions provider with a banking and financial services (BFS) focus.

Bharat Rasayan rose 1.49% to Rs 10,505. The board of Bharat Rasayan on Tuesday (12 January 2021) approved a proposal to buyback upto 93,472 shares (2.2% of the total number of fully paid-up equity shares) at a price of Rs 11,500 per share, aggregating to amount not exceeding Rs 107.49 crore.

Adani Green Energy shed 0.35% to Rs 908.08. The counter clocked a volume of 202.59 lakh shares, a 253.79 fold spurt over two-week average daily volume of 0.78 lakh shares.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) rose 0.09% to Rs 1351. The company said its construction arm secured 'significant' orders for its various businesses. As per L&T's classification, the valuation of the 'significant' contract lies between Rs 1000 crore to Rs 2500 crore.

Tata Elxsi's surged 13.64% to Rs 2360.40 after the company's net profit jumped 39.5% to Rs 105.20 crore on 10.9% rise in total income to Rs 492.20 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019. Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) rose 52.4% to Rs 143.60 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019. EBITDA margin expanded to 30.1% in Q3 December 2020 from 22.2% in Q3 December 2019.

Hero MotoCorp rose 0.25% to Rs 3254.30. The motorcycles & scooters manufacturer, reinforced its presence in Central America by appointing new distributor partners in Nicaragua and Honduras, with expansion plans for both the countries.

Tata Motors advanced 2.02% to Rs 242.60 after the Tata Motors Group global wholesales in Q3 FY21, including Jaguar Land Rover, stood at 2.78 lakh units, recording a 1% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth compared with Q3 FY20.

Filatex India tumbled 5.01% to Rs 67.25. The textile firm's net profit surged 255.63% to Rs 66.04 crore in Q3 FY21 compared with Rs 18.57 crore in Q3 FY20. Net sales during the quarter declined 2.19% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 721.59 crore. EBITDA stood at Rs 120.2 crore in third quarter as against Rs 55.9 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. EBITDA margin was at 16.65% as on 30 December 2020 compared with 7.57% as on 30 December 2019.

Global Markets:

Shares in Europe and Asia advanced on Wednesday. European investors kept track of COVID-19 developments in the region, with governments looking to accelerate, or to keep good momentum, in their coronavirus vaccination drives. In the meantime, lockdowns have been extended in Germany and the Netherlands.

In Asia, the Japanese government is set to expand the state of emergency to more areas on Wednesday, as per reports. That comes after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga recently declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and three other areas in a bid to stem a rise in coronavirus infections.

Meanwhile, local Chinese authorities in regions near Beijing are reportedly stepping up restrictions on social activity following a rise in new coronavirus cases.

US stocks closed along the flatline on Tuesday as traders weighed higher rates, possible stimulus and political turmoil. Investors will watch for developments from Washington, with the U.S. House set to push ahead with efforts to remove President Donald Trump from office over his role in sparking last week's deadly attack on the Capitol.

As per reports, Vice President Mike Pence told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday that he does not support invoking the 25th Amendment against President Donald Trump. Pence's letter came as the House is preparing to vote on a resolution calling on Pence to convene and mobilize Trump's cabinet to remove the president from power, using the powers granted by the amendment, the reports added.

House Democrats reportedly are moving forward with efforts to remove Trump from office following last week's riot at the U.S. Capitol, which they charge he incited. An impeachment vote is reportedly expected on Wednesday.

The domestic equity benchmark ended near the day's high on Tuesday, mirroring the gains in Asian peers. PSU banks, auto and realty stocks rallied while IT, pharma and FMCG shares declined.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped, 247.79 points or 0.50% to 49,517.11. The Nifty 50 index added 78.70 points or 0.54% to 14,563.45.

The buying was broad based. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.44%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.25%.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1687 shares rose and 1403 shares fell. A total of 163 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 9,08,94,797 with 19,44,754 deaths. India reported 2,16,558 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,51,327 deaths while 1,01,11,294 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Bharat Biotech reportedly inked a purchase agreement with the Government of India on January 11 to provide 55 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin at Rs 295 per dose. The pharma firm will be providing its coronavirus vaccine directly to 12 states, and the process will be completed in two days by January 14. Dispatches will begin from Hyderabad starting January 12. Bharat Biotech will be providing 38.5 lakh doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in stage 1 and 16.5 doses in stage 2.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Bank index rose 1.11% to 32,355.65. The index advanced 2.06% from the day's low of 31,736.70 in early trade, to hit the day's high at 32,391.25 in mid-afternoon trade today.

Bank Of Baroda (up 10.74%), IDFC First Bank (up 6.30%), Punjab National Bank (up 4.44%), SBI (up 3.66%), HDFC Bank (up 2.08%), Federal Bank (up 1.87%), Axis Bank (up 1.36%), RBL Bank (up 0.74%), ICICI Bank (up 0.54%) advanced.

Bandhan Bank (down 4%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.86%) and IndusInd Bank (down 0.22%) declined.

Bank stocks opened lower today after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) warned that an expected doubling of bad loans and soaring financial markets in the nation's weakened economy threaten financial stability.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, in his foreword for the financial stability report released on Monday, said:Stretched valuations of financial assets pose risks to financial stability. Banks and financial intermediaries need to be cognizant of these risks and spillovers in an interconnected financial system.

The financial stability report has also warned that banks' bad loans may double by September 2021. The RBI sees gross bad loans account for 13.5% of total loans by September even in a base case scenario.

The RBI expects banks' capital ratios will erode to 14% in September from 15.6% in September 2020, the report showed. This may worsen to 12.5% in a very severe stress scenario, under which nine banks may fall short of meeting the minimum capital requirement of 9%.

Stocks in Spotlight:

GAIL (India) advanced 4.53% to Rs 141.85. The natural gas distributor said its board will consider share buyback on 15 January 2021.

Sunteck Realty rose 2.18% to Rs 379. The real estate developer said it saw a robust growth in pre-sales for Q3 December 2020 at Rs 349 crore. The company's pre-sales have grown by 75% quarter on quarter (QoQ) and increased 7% year on year (YoY) in Q3 December 2020. Collections grew at 79% QoQ and surged by 52% YoY to Rs 252 crore in Q3 December 2020.

IndiaMART InterMESH gained 2.63% to Rs 8201. The e-commerce company said that its board will meet on 18 January 2020 to consider raising funds via the equity route. The board will also consider Q3 results on the same day.

Tata Motors rallied 7.88% to Rs 237.45 after the company's foreign arm, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), marked the end of 2020 with a second successive quarter-on-quarter recovery in sales, despite the continuing impact of COVID-19. Retail sales for the quarter ending 31 December 2020 stood at 1.28 lakh vehicles, registering a 13.1% growth over 1.13 lakh vehicles sold in the preceding quarter, but down 9% on the same period last year.

Force Motors rose 2.92% to Rs 1416.90. The company's board has approved raising up to Rs 500 crore via NCDs.

Burger King India slipped 1.53% to Rs 147.85. According to NSE bulk deal data, Eastspring Investments India Consumer Equity Open on Monday (11 January 2021), offloaded 27,55,323 equity shares (representing 0.72% stake) of Burger King India at average price of Rs 154.92.

Talbros Automotive Components surged 6.57% to Rs 180.95. Marelli Talbros Chassis Systems, the 50% joint venture company of Talbros Automotive Components has received multi-year order from a large European car manufacturer. The order is for supplying BIW (body in white design) parts. The order value is estimated at approximately Rs 92 crore over the life of the contract.

Steel Strips Wheels (SSWL) added 1.84% to Rs 660 after the company's net profit soared 4.57 times to Rs 28.75 crore in Q3 FY21 from Rs 6.29 crore in Q3 FY20. Revenue from operations during the quarter increased by 52.66% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 524.54 crore in Q3 FY21.

Mahindra Lifespace Developers rose 2% to Rs 394.55 after the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with State Bank of India. As part of the agreement, which includes various co-promotional activities and outreach initiatives, customers and employees of SBI and Mahindra Lifespaces will be able to avail the benefits of faster home loan processing and approvals, and special discounts and schemes.

Global Markets:

Most European stocks were trading lower on Tuesday as investors remain focused on the latest coronavirus developments and the state of U.S. politics. Rising infections in Europe are dominating investor concerns although there is hope amid a mass rollout of vaccinations across the continent.

Most Asian shares ended higher on Tuesday. However, South Korea's Kospi declined nearly 2% in trade today.

Malaysia's King on Tuesday reportedly declared a state of emergency in the country. That came after Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin reportedly announced Monday that the country would tighten COVID-19 restrictions from Wednesday, with multiple states coming under a lockdown. Consequently, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI index slipped 0.74%.

President Donald Trump on Monday reportedly approved an emergency declaration for Washington that lasts through January 24, after authorities warned of security threats to President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration next week.

US stocks declined from record high on Monday, 11 January 2021, with major indices- S&P 500 index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite all settling lower, as investors elected to book some profit amid concerns about stocks valuations after record-setting runs. Rising coronavirus cases across the world and concerns about developments in Washington also weighed on stocks.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 0.29%, the S&P 500 index slipped 0.66% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index lost 1.25%.

Political uncertainty continues to hang over markets. House Democrats are preparing to impeach Donald Trump even though the president has less than two weeks left in his term. After the siege of the U.S. Capitol building by Trump supporters last week, Democrats are concerned about additional incitement by the president in his final days in office.

Domestic equity benchmarks jumped to end near the day's high on Monday. IT, auto, FMCG and pharma shares rallied while metals and PSU banks corrected. Steel stocks tumbled after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari reportedly hinted at presence of cartel in the cement & steel industry.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 486.81 points or 1% to 49,269.32. The Nifty 50 index gained 137.50 points or 0.96% to 14,484.75.

The Sensex hit a record high of 49,303.79 and the Nifty hit a record high of 14,498.20 in late trade today. Positive Asian cues and robust FII inflows boosted sentiment.

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 8.57% to 22.41.

The broader market underperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.08%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 0.17%.

Sellers outnumbered buyers. On the BSE, 1470 shares rose and 1682 shares fell. A total of 147 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 9,02,79,510 with 19,34,786 deaths. India reported 2,22,526 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,51,160 deaths while 1,00,92,909 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

India kickstarts the world's biggest inoculation drive, PM Narendra Modi will hold a virtual meeting with chief ministers of all states and union territories on Monday and review the preparedness for COVID-19 vaccine administration across the nation.

In India's vaccination drive, set to start on 16 January 2021, priority will be given to about 3 crore frontline workers, followed by around 27 crore people above the age of 50 and others with co-morbidities. The country has also conducted two dry runs to understand the best way to administer vaccine shots and plug loopholes in logistics and training.

Economy:

Assocham on Sunday (10 January) said that India's economy is showing decisive signs of a 'V-shaped' recovery in 2021 with the return of consumer confidence, robust financial markets, an uptick in manufacturing and exporters braving it out in the global market with never-say-die spirit. The industry chamber further added that it expects immense accruals of economic benefits from the COVID-19 vaccination programme about to be rolled out.

Buzzing Segment:

Shares of four steel companies declined after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari reportedly said that there is a cartel in cement & steel industries, and cement manufacturers are exploiting the situation in the real estate sector, as prices of the two commodities rise.

Every steel company has its own iron ore mines & there has been no increase in labour & power costs but they are increasing rates. It is difficult for me to understand (the reason behind it), the minister reportedly said.

SAIL (down 3.44%), Tata Steel (down 2.48%), JSW Steel (down 0.88%) and Jindal Steel & Power (down 0.44%) edged lower.

Tata Steel's Indian crude steel production rose 2.90% to 4.60 million tons (MT) in Q3 December 2020 (3QFY21) from 4.47 MT in Q3 December 2019 (3QFY20). On a sequential basis, the crude steel production has improved marginally from 4.59 MT in Q2 September 2020 (2QFY21).

Tata Steel India saw strong sales momentum in 3QFY21, however, sales volumes were constrained by lower opening inventory post very strong sales in 2QFY21. As a result, deliveries were 4.66 MT in 3QFY21, lower by 8% as compared to 5.05 MT in Q2 FY21 and lower by 4% from 4.85 MT in 3QFY20.

During the quarter, despite planned maintenance shutdowns, the company was able to ramp-up steel production at Tata Steel Europe by 22% QoQ and 4%YoY to 2.61 MT. This was aimed at replenishing inventory ahead of improving market condition and seasonally better Q4 March 2021 (4QFY21).

While Q3 FY21 steel sales volume declined by 7% QoQ and 10% YoY to 2.11 MT, due to lower opening inventories and COVID-19 impact at beginning of the quarter, the mix of deliveries saw further improvements in the Automotive and Engineering sectors.

Earning Impact:

TCS gained 1.71% to Rs 3173.75 after the IT major reported 16.4% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 8,701 crore on a 4.7% increase in revenue to Rs 42,015 crore in Q3 December 2020 (Q3 FY21) over Q2 September 2020 (Q2 FY21). The company's September quarter net profit had a post-tax one-time impact of Rs 958 crore due to provision for ongoing litigation with EPIC.

The company's consolidated net profit has grown by 7.2% and revenue has risen by 5.4% in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20.

TCS said that constant currency revenue for Q3 FY21 rose 4.1% quarter-on-quarter and 0.4% year-on-year. The IT major's operating margin stood at 26.6% in Q3FY21 compared with 26.2% in Q2FY21. Net margin stood at 20.7% in Q3FY21.

TCS said that all its verticals showed good sequential growth, led by Manufacturing (+7.1%), BFSI (+2%), Life Sciences and Healthcare (+5.2%), Communications & Media (+5.5%) and Retail and CPG (+3.1%). On a year on year, constant currency basis, Life Sciences and Healthcare continued to grow in double digits at 18.2%. BFSI (+2.4%) and Technology & Services (+2.4%) also moved into positive territory.

The IT firm continued to witness a strong rebound in growth and transformation services as customers seek to operationalize new models. Growth in the quarter was led by Cloud Services, Analytics & Insights, Cognitive Business Operations, IoT and Quality Engineering & Transformation Platform Services.

As on 31 December 2020, the company has applied for 5,634 patents, including 134 applied during the quarter, and has been granted 1,713 patents. The company's net cash from operations in Q3 FY21 was Rs 11,952 crore.

Avenue Supermarts added 0.08% to Rs 2970. The company's consolidated net profit surged 16.4% to Rs 446.97 crore on a 10.8% rise in net sales to Rs 7542 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019.

EBITDA for Q3 December 2020 stood at Rs 689 crore, rising 15.4% from Rs 597 crore posted in the corresponding quarter of last year. EBITDA margin improved to 9.1% in Q3 December 2020 from 8.8% in Q3 December 2019.

Commenting on the performance of the company, Neville Noronha, CEO & MD of Avenue Supermarts, said: “The quarter has seen further improvement in our business and financial metrics. Our overall sales and sales mix is now trending very close to our usual times except for specific customer consumption changes post Covid-19. Apparel, laundry, footwear, travel and such relevant out of home usage categories are taking more time to recover. Agile OPEX management along with a good surge in festival shopping allowed us to deliver a significantly better quarter than the previous two quarters.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Narayana Hrudayalaya added 3.91% to Rs 470. The hospital chain has discontinued operations of the Heart Centre operated in the premises of IQ City Hospital in Durgapur, West Bengal under an agreement with IQ City Foundation (formerly known as SPS Synergy Foundation).

KEC International gained 0.79% to Rs 365.15. The company has secured new orders of Rs 1,024 crore across its various businesses.

Vedanta fell 1.70% to Rs 178.95. The company said its promoters has made voluntary open offer for the acquisition of up to 371,750,500 equity shares representing 10% of the fully diluted voting share capital of the company from the public shareholders. The offer is made at a price of Rs 160 per equity share.

Apollo Micro Systems surged 15% to Rs 149.10. The company in an exchange filing on Saturday announced that it bagged a Rs 49.86 crore order from Bharat Electronics, a Defence Public Sector Undertaking with a repeat order clause, for maximum of 120% of the units originally ordered.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) lost 0.76% at Rs 39.05. BHEL on Monday (11 January) announced that it has secured an order for a steam and power plant from National Aluminium Company (NALCO). The order is valued at Rs 450 crore and is a part of NALCO's 5th Stream Alumina Refinery Expansion Project at Damanjodi, Odisha.

Global Markets:

European stocks declined on Monday. The investors focused on the alarming surge in coronavirus cases globally as countries race to vaccinate their elderly, the most vulnerable members of society, and healthcare workers against COVID-19 as fast as they can.

Over the weekend, the U.K.'s Queen Elizabeth and her husband Philip, both in their nineties, received vaccinations against COVID-19, the Buckingham Palace said.

Most Asian stocks ended higher on Monday. Markets in Japan were closed on Monday for a holiday. Shares in South Korea's auto sector surged again on Monday following reports that Hyundai Motor and Apple are set to sign a partnership deal on autonomous electric cars.

China's producer price index fell 0.4% in December as compared to a year earlier, according to the country's Bureau of Statistics. Meanwhile, China's consumer price index rose 0.2% year-on-year in December.

In US, Wall Street scaled new highs on Friday as hopes of more stimulus from Washington were bolstered after U.S. President-elect Joe Biden said his economic package will be in the trillions of dollars.

In economic data, the US economy shed jobs for the first time in eight months in December. Nonfarm payrolls decreased by 140,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. Data for November was revised up to show 336,000 jobs added instead of 245,000 as previously reported.

Global shares were upbeat amid hopes for an economic recovery later in the year. Traders bet that a new Democratic-controlled U.S. government would lead to heavy spending and borrowing to support the country's economic recovery. US President-elect Joe Biden is expected to move quickly to gain passage of $2,000 stimulus checks, along with expanded unemployment benefits, aid to state and local governments and additional relief for small businesses.

As per provisional closing data, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 689.19 points or 1.43% at 48,782.92. The Nifty 50 index rallied 209.9 points or 1.48% at 14,347.55.

The Sensex hit a record high of 48,854.34 while the Nifty scaled a fresh all time high of 14,367.30 in late trade today.

Buying was broad based. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 1.01% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.72%.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1,773 shares rose and 1,341 shares fell. A total of 153 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 8,80,51,477 with 18,98,655 deaths. India reported 2,25,449 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,50,570 deaths while 1,00,37,398 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Nearly a week after the government suspended the flights to and from the United Kingdom amid concerns over the new coronavirus strain, the two countries resumed normal flight operation from Friday.

According to reports, the first flight carrying 256 passengers arrived in the national capital from London today. The resumption of the normal flight operations comes nearly a week after the government suspended services between India and UK on December 23 over the new and more contagious strain of the virus.

Economy:

The central government on Thursday projected that the country's economy will contract by 7.7% in the current fiscal year 2020-21, as per the first advance estimates of gross domestic product released by the National Statistical Office. The agriculture sector estimate for FY 2021 stood at 3.4%. Also, mining estimate stood at -12.4% for FY21 against 3.1%(YoY) and nominal GDP estimate stood at -4.2%.

Results Today:

IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was up 2.87%. TCS will announce its Q3 quarterly results today.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Biocon advanced 2.2% after the pharmaceutical major announced that the board of its subsidiary Biocon Biologics has approved a primary equity investment by Abu Dhabi based ADQ (ADQ), one of the region's largest holding companies. As per the terms of the proposed agreement, ADQ will invest Rs 555 crore for a 1.80% minority stake in the biosimilar business, valuing Biocon Biologics at a post money valuation of about $4.17 billion. Post the completion of this transaction, Biocon will hold 89.89% stake in Biocon Biologics on a fully diluted basis. Established in Abu Dhabi in 2018, ADQ is one of the region's largest holding companies with direct and indirect investments in more than 90 companies locally and internationally.

ONGC gained 3.12% after the state-run corporation announced that it has approved the offer and issuance of up to 15,000 non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of face value of Rs 10 lakh at par aggregating to a total issue size of up to Rs 1,500 crore.

Strides Pharma Science fell 2.86%. The drug company said that Aditya Puri has joined the Strides Group as an advisor and also as a director of its associate company, Stelis Biopharma. Stelis Biopharma is a vertically integrated biopharmaceutical company. The company offers end-to-end state-of-the-art CDMO services across all phases of pre-clinical and clinical development and commercial supply of biologics.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) advanced 3.66% after the company announced price increase for its personal & commercial range of vehicles from 8 January 2021. The prices of its range of personal and commercial vehicles will increase by around 1.9%, resulting in an increase of Rs 4,500-Rs 40,000, depending on the model and variant.

NALCO fell 0.52%. The Ministry of Coal announced Rs 30,000 crore expansion plan for the company. Out of this proposed investment, the company will spend over Rs 7,000 crore on the fifth stream refinery, Pottangi bauxite mines, bauxite transportation system from south block & Utkal D & E coal mines. Remaining Rs 22,000 crore will be spent on smelter and captive power plant (CPP) expansions, which also include expansion of the company's smelter plant at Angul district in Odisha with construction of a 1400 MW feeder CPP.

Himatsingka Seide jumped 5.87% after the company entered into a new licensing agreement with Disney to expand its global brand portfolio in the home textile space. The license will give Himatsingka the rights to design, develop, manufacture and distribute a broad range of home textile products inspired by Disney's vast archives and characters from all its franchises including Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Lucas.

Bharat Rasayan spurted 8% after the company said that its board will consider share buyback on Tuesday, 12 January 2021.

Global Markets:

The Dow Jones Futures 30 were trading 90 points higher, indicating a positive start in US markets today.

European traded higher on Friday as global investors anticipate that a Democratic-controlled U.S. government will lead to greater fiscal support.

Asian markets closed higher on Friday. Shares of South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor soared following reports of a deal between the firm and Cupertino-based tech giant Apple on developing electric vehicles and batteries.

The US stocks rose to all-time highs on Thursday as the U.S. Congress confirmed the election of Joe Biden as president early Thursday, a day after supporters of Donald Trump invaded the U.S. Capitol. Thursday marked the Nasdaq's first-ever close above 13,000. It was also the first time the Dow and S&P 500 ended a session above 31,000 and 3,800, respectively.

Traders continued to focus on the possibility for additional fiscal aid after the Democratic party secured a slim majority in the Senate, giving it control of both congressional chambers.

Sentiment on Wall Street also got a boost after the Institute for Supply Management said its index for nonmanufacturing activity in the U.S. rose to 57.2 in December from 55.9 in November.

The main equity indices closed mildly lower on Thursday. Buying was seen in metal, realty and financial stocks while FMCG, IT and pharma shares corrected. As per the provisional closing data, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 80.74 points or 0.17% at 48,093.43. The Nifty 50 index fell 8.9 points or 0.06% at 14,137.80.

The broader market outperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 1.05% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.85%.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1974 shares rose and 1101 shares fell. A total of 152 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 27 stocks advanced while 23 stocks declined.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 483.64 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 380.41 crore in the Indian equity market on 6 January 2021, provisional data showed.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 8,71,97,387 with 18,83,914 deaths. India reported 2,28,083 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,50,336 deaths while 1,00,16,859 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Total coronavirus (COVID-19) recoveries in India crossed the 1-crore mark with over 1.50 lakh deaths on Thursday.

Economy:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reported that currency in circulation contracted by 0.3% on the week to stand at Rs 27.70 lakh crore as on 1 January 2021. The central bank stated further that the overall reserve money rose by 0.2% on the week to Rs 33.22 lakh crore. Currency in circulation rose around 22.1% on a year ago basis compared to 11.8% growth at the same time last year. In the current fiscal, the currency in circulation has expanded by 13.2% so far while the reserve money has increased by 9.7%.

Sebi Regulation:

The markets regulator, Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on 6 January 2021 proposed to ease ownership norms for entities that plan to start new stock exchanges in India, a move that may allow entry of foreign exchanges and lower the trading costs for investors.

The Sebi has floated a discussion paper on review of ownership and governance norms to facilitate new entrants to set up stock exchanges and depositories, otherwise called as market infrastructure institutions (MIIs). As per the key proposals, a resident promoter setting up an MII may hold up to 100% shareholding, which will be brought down to not more than (either 51% or 26%) in 10 years.

A foreign promoter from Financial Action Task Force FATF member jurisdictions setting up an MII may hold up to 49% shareholding, which shall be brought down to not more than (either 26% or 15%) in 10 years.

Currently, NSE, BSE and Metropolitan Stock Exchange are the three nationwide bourses in India, with NSE being the largest in terms of trade volumes both in cash and derivatives segments.

Stocks in Spotlight:

L&T added 2.06% after the company's subsidiary L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering won a 'large' offshore contract from ONGC for their new living quarter and revamp at NQ Complex. The contract involves engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning of a new living quarter platform of 120 men capacity, bridge (with intermediate support) to existing 'NQO Complex' and major revamping / replacement of existing process systems / facilities at `NQ Complex' in ONGC's Mumbai High Asset on the West Coast of India.

Dixon Technologies (India) jumped 8.75% after the company entered into an agreement with Imagine Marketing (boAt) for manufacturing of twin wireless speakers. Dixon will be manufacturing the products from its facility in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Lupin rose 2.17%. The drug major announced that it has received approval for its Sulfamethoxazole and Trimethoprim Oral Suspension USP from the USFDA. The drug is a generic equivalent of Bactrim Oral Suspension of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Inc. It is indicated for the treatment and prevention of a wide variety of bacterial infections (such as middle ear, urine, respiratory, and intestinal infections), and certain type of pneumonia (pneumocystis-type). The product (RLD: Bactrim) had estimated annual sales of approximately $19 million in the U.S. (IQVIA MAT September 2020).

Sobha jumped nearly 8% after the realty firm reported its best ever quarterly sales volume in Q3 December 2020 without any major launch during the quarter. During Q3 FY21, Sobha achieved total sales volume of 11,33,574 square feet of super built-up area valued at Rs 888 crore, with a total average realization of Rs 7,830 per square feet. Sales volume, total sales value are up by 27% and 29% respectively as compared to Q2 FY21. The company said it posted better sales numbers during Q3 FY21 compared with the pre- COVID 19 level Q3 FY20 due to good demand witnessed across all product categories where Sobha is operating.

NMDC advanced 4.02% after the state-owned miner hiked prices of iron ore with effect from Wednesday, 6 January 2021. The PSU Enterprise increased lump ore prices by 9.61% to Rs 5,700 per tonne on 6 January 2021 from Rs 5,200 per tonne set on 15 December 2020. Prices of fines were hiked by 4.33% to Rs 4,810 per tonne on 6 January 2021 from Rs 4,610 per tonne set on 15 December 2020.

NCL Industries soared 4.64% after the company said its cement production increased 50% to 6,32,746 metric tonnes (MT) in Q3 FY21 from 4,23,199 in Q3 FY20. Sequentially, the cement production rose 2.89% in Q3 FY21 from 6,14,975 MT in Q2 FY21.

Bandhan Bank gained 2.13% after the bank's total deposits jumped 30% to Rs 71,188 crore in Q3 FY21 as against Rs 54,908 crore in Q3 FY20. Sequentially, the bank's deposits have risen by 8% in Q3 FY21 from Rs 66,128 crore in Q2 FY21. The bank's loans & advances at the end of the December 2020 quarter stood at Rs 80,255 crore, up by 23% from Rs 65,456 crore in the same period last year. The loan book of the private lender has increased by 5% sequentially compared with Rs 76,615 at the end of the September 2020 quarter.

Ramco Systems rose 1.9% after the company announced that it will implement its Aviation M&E MRO Suite v5.8 for U.S.-based Construction Helicopters Inc.

Global Markets:

The Dow Jones Futures 30 were up 102 points, indicating a decent start in US markets today.

Most European markets were trading higher on Thursday following a projected win for Democrats in the U.S. Senate following dramatic scenes when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol building. In Europe, the COVID-19 pandemic remains a key concern. The U.K. reported more than 60,000 new daily cases on Wednesday and a further 1,000 deaths of people with the virus.

Asian markets closed higher after the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to an all-time high overnight despite unrest in Washington. In US, the Dow and the S&P 500 ended higher, soaring to all-time highs on Wednesday, as investors piled into financial and industrial stocks on bets a Democratic sweep in Georgia would lead to more fiscal stimulus and infrastructure spending.

Stocks closed off their highs as pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol and caused Congress to suspend proceedings to confirm the election of Joe Biden as president. The Capitol was finally secured late Wednesday afternoon, and Congress resumed the process of counting electoral votes and confirming President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, dropped 263.72 points or 0.54% at 48,174.40. The Nifty 50 index slipped 53.25 points or 0.38% at 14,146.25.

Profit selling emerged after the Sensex hit a record high of 48,616.66 while the Nifty hit a fresh all time high of 14,244.15 in early trade today. The Sensex jumped 6.33% in the past ten trading sessions.

The broader market closed on a mixed note. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.39% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.14%.

The market breadth was almost even. On the BSE, 1,535 shares rose and 1,567 shares fell. A total of 131 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 986.30 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 490.03 crore in the Indian equity market on 5 January 2021, provisional data showed.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 8,64,12,620 with 18,69,153 deaths. India reported 2,27,546 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,50,114 deaths while 99,97,272 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Balram Bhargava, chief of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), on Tuesday, said that Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine has been cleared in the clinical trial mode, which means consent of participants has to be taken. He was responding to the questions being raised on the clearance given to Covaxin.

Meanwhile, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Sunday approved AstraZeneca's vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute, and Covaxin for restricted emergency use in the country, paving the way for a massive inoculation drive.

Economy:

The seasonally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index came at 52.3 in December 2020. The index highlighted output growth for the third month in a row, however falling from 53.7 in November, the latest figure pointed to the slowest pace of expansion over the aforementioned sequence.

Meanwhile, the Word Bank on Tuesday said that India's economy is estimated to contract by 9.6% in the fiscal year 2020-21, reflecting a sharp drop in household spending and private investment, and the growth is expected to recover to 5.4% in 2021.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Bajaj Finance slipped 1.84% after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a penalty of Rs 2.50 crore on the NBFC for use of coercive means of recovery. RBI on Tuesday (5 January 2021) imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 2.50 crore on Bajaj Finance for using coercive methods of recovery from its borrowers, and violation of general guidelines and one specific direction issued by the regulator.

BEML rose 1.65% after the company received orders from Ministry of Defence for supply of High Mobility vehicles, at an approximate value of Rs 758 crore. BEML said the High Mobility vehicles would play a key role in the logistics management of the Indian Army leveraging on its exceptional cross-country capabilities. These vehicles would enable armoured fighting vehicles, troops, ammunitions and stores to be moved to far-flung, difficult terrains in operational areas.

Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) jumped 4.65% after the company said it is exploring the possibility of merging its subsidiaries with itself. In a regulatory filing issued after market hours yesterday, the company said that it is exploring the possibility of merging CONCOR AIR (CAL), SIDCUL CONCOR Infra Company (SCICL) and Punjab Logistics Infrastructure (PUL) with itself.

Godrej Consumer Products fell 1.91%. The FMCG major said that during the third quarter, demand trends in the categories across the key countries that the company operates in, remained stable. In India, the company expects to deliver a second consecutive quarter of close to low double-digit sales growth, driven by higher than mid-single digit volume growth. This is led by Soaps, which is expected to deliver strong mid-teen growth. Following a sharp recovery, Hair Colours is also expected to deliver mid-teen growth. Household Insecticides is expected to deliver close to high single-digit growth. The company continued the robust scale up of its personal and home hygiene category.

Hero MotoCorp rose 0.56%. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India hiked stake in the company to 9.166% from 7.145% earlier. LIC purchased 40.36 lakh shares of the company (equivalent to 2.021% stake) between 19 May 2020 and 4 January 2021. Consequently, LIC's stake in the Hero MotoCorp has risen to 9.166% from 7.145% stake earlier.

ACC gained 1.84% after the cement manufacturer announced the successful commissioning of its new Grinding Unit (GU) at Sindri in the State of Jharkhand effective January 2, 2021. The new facility will add an additional capacity of 1.4 MTPA cement to the existing 3 MTPA unit, taking the total capacity at Sindri to 4.4 MTPA. The foundation stone of Sindri GU - phase II was laid in December 2019 with an aim to contribute significantly to servicing the growing market, strengthen presence in the Eastern region and add value to business. This facility will manufacture low CO2, environment friendly, cement products.

Bharat Dynamics rallied 2.98% after the company said it has bagged orders worth Rs 632.88 crore. The company has received Konkurs-M ATGM order along with launchers and test equipment.

Global Markets:

European stocks advanced on Wednesday. The coronavirus pandemic and U.S. political developments remain a key focus for investors. European investors are looking ahead of the latest COVID-19 developments, with England entering a third national lockdown on Tuesday and Germany on Tuesday extending its own lockdown until 31 January 2021.

Most Asian markets ended lower as investors anxiously awaited results of U.S. runoff elections that would determine the legislative balance of power in the world's largest economy.

A private survey showed services sector activity in China expanding at a slower pace in December, with the Caixin/Markit services Purchasing Managers' Index coming in at 56.3. That compared against November's reading of 57.8.

US stocks ended higher on Tuesday in choppy trading, ahead of the outcome of the Senate runoff elections in the battleground state of Georgia, which will determine the balance of power in Washington.

Investors also looked ahead to two key elections in Georgia, which will determine whether Republicans can hold on to control in the Senate. Many fear that increased tax rates and more progressive policies could weigh on the market if Democrats gain control of the Senate. However, such an outcome could create an opportunity for a bigger and faster spending package.

In U.S. economic data, the Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index rose to 60.7 in December — its highest level since August 2018 — from 57.5 in November.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, gained 260.98 points or 0.54% to 48,437.98. The Nifty 50 index added 66.60 points or 0.47% to 14,199.10.

The Sensex scaled a record high of 48,486.24 while the Nifty hit an all-time high of 14,215.60 in late trade today.

The broader market outperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rallied 1.35% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.7%.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1784 shares rose and 1283 shares fell. A total of 166 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,843.22 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 715.21 crore in the Indian equity market on 4 January 2021, provisional data showed.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 8,56,75,442 with 18,53,344 deaths. India reported 2,31,036 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,49,850 deaths while 99,75,958 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

A total of 38 people have tested positive for the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 in India so far, the Union Health Ministry said on Monday. These include the 29 cases which were announced till Friday.

The new variant of coronavirus disease - B.1.1.7 - has been dubbed as highly infectious by scientists and medical experts as the UK government has confirmed that the infection rates have increased faster than expected in the affected areas.

Economy:

The Ministry of Finance has released the 10th weekly installment of Rs 6,000 crore to the states to meet the GST compensation shortfall. Now, more than 50% of the estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the States and UTs with the Legislative Assembly. The government had set up a special borrowing window in October 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of implementation of GST. The borrowings are being done through this window by the Central Government on behalf of the States and UTs. The amount released this week was the 10th installment of such funds provided to the States. The amount has been borrowed this week at an interest rate of 4.1526%. So far, an amount of Rs 60,000 crore has been borrowed by the central government.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) surged 2.71% after the company said its individual loan business continued to see improvements during the quarter ended 31 December 2020. Disbursement growth over the corresponding quarter of the previous year was 26%. For the nine months ended 31 December 2020, individual loan disbursements stood at 86% of the levels in the corresponding period of the previous year. The corporation assigned loans to HDFC Bank amounting to Rs 7,076 crore compared to Rs 4,258 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Individual loans sold in the preceding 12 months amounted to Rs 16,956 crore as against Rs 21,066 crore in the previous year.

Bajaj Finance fell 1.73%. The NBFC disclosed that its assets under management (AUM) stood at approximately Rs 143,700 crore as of 31 December 2020, a tad lower than Rs 145,092 crore as of 31 December 2019. The company's AUM in Q3 FY21 grew by approximately Rs 7,700 crore as compared to Rs 9,559 crore in Q3 FY20. Bajaj Finance's customer franchise as of 31 December 2020 stood at 46.3 million compared with 40.4 million as of 31 December 2019. The company acquired 2.2 million new customers in Q3 FY21 as against 2.5 million in Q3 FY20. New loans booked during Q3 FY21 were 6 million as compared to 7.7 million in Q3 FY20. The company's consolidated liquidity surplus stood at approximately Rs 14,600 crore as of 31 December 2020. The company's liquidity position remains very strong, Bajaj Finance said in a statement. The company continues to remain well capitalized with capital adequacy ratio (CRAR) of approximately 28% as of 31 December 2020.

IndusInd Bank gained 2.65%. The private lender said its deposits increased 11% to Rs 2,39,600 crore in Q3 December 2020 from Rs 2,16,713 crore in Q3 December 2019. Deposits rose 4.96% last month compared with Rs 2,28,279 crore in Q2 September 2020. Retail deposits and deposits from small business customers amounted to Rs 85,914 crore in Q3 FY21, up by 13.63% from Rs 75,610 crore in Q2 FY21. IndusInd Bank's net advances stood at Rs 2,07,691 crore in Q3 FY21, a tad higher compared with Rs 2,07,413 crore in the same period last year. Sequentially, the bank's net advances rose 3.20% in December 2020 from Rs 2,01,247 crore in Q2 FY21. CASA ratio was at 40.5% as on 30 December 2020 as against 42.4% as on 30 December 2019 and 40.4% as on 30 September 2020.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries fell 0.21%. The drug major announced that it has initiated Phase 2 clinical trial for SCD-044 in patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. The Phase 2 study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to assess the efficacy and safety of SCD-044 in the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. The study will enroll approximately 240 subjects and topline results are expected in 2022.

National Fertilizers (NFL) jumped 6.72% after the company said that it achieved highest ever production of 9.99 lakh MT urea in the third quarter during FY 2020-21. The company successfully maintained its operations during constraints posed by COVID-19, it added. The plants at Nangal and Panipat achieved their best ever urea production during Oct-Dec 2020 period. The Nangal plant while increasing production levels at plant also achieved ever lowest quarterly energy of 6.602 GCal/MT urea against previous best of 6.615 GCal/MT urea.

IIFL Securities rallied 4.17% after the company said its insurance unit received the regulatory approval to undertake insurance e-commerce activities. IIFL Insurance Brokers, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IIFL Securities, received permission from Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) for undertaking insurance e-commerce activities (i.e. online sale and service of insurance policies) in India through Insurance Self Networking Platform (ISNP).

Tata Power added 2.15% after the company partnered with SIDBI to launch affordable and collateral-free financing for rooftop solar for MSMEs consumers. The financing scheme is exclusively for MSME customers of Tata Power for both off-grid and on-grid connections.

KNR Construction gained 1.63% after the infrastructure company received orders worth of Rs 603.63 crore from Project Director, Highways (FAC), Chennai Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor Project, Chennai.

MOIL rose 0.54% after the state-run corporation announced resources base of 7.65 million tonnes of manganese established in Gujarat under MoU with GMDC.

Global Markets:

The Dow Jones Futures 30 were up 85 points, indicating a decent start in US markets today.

Asian shares closed higher while European shares were mixed. The sentiment was fragile as fears surrounding the coronavirus pandemic lingered.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed a national lockdown on England to curb the spread of the new coronavirus variant. As part of the new restrictions, people can only leave their homes for essentials, work if they can't from home and exercise. Most schools will also move to remote learning, including universities.

Meanwhile, Germany is also expected to extend its own lockdown measures later on Tuesday. According to media reports, the current restrictions - which include the closure of schools, retailers and restaurants - are all set to continue until at least the end of January.

US stocks dropped on Monday, the first trading day of 2021, amid concerns about global coronavirus cases and the Georgia runoff elections. Investors are keeping eye on Tuesday's Senate runoffs in Georgia, which could have a big impact on incoming U.S. President Joe Biden's economic policies.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, gained 307.82 points or 0.64% to 48,176.98. The Nifty 50 index rallied 114.40 points or 0.82% to 14,132.10.

The Sensex scaled a record high of 48,220.47 while the Nifty made an all time high of 14,147.95 in late trade today.

The broader market outperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.42% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index surged 1.37%.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 2100 shares rose and 988 shares fell. A total of 166 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 506.21 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net buyers to the tune of Rs 69.40 crore in the Indian equity market on 1 January 2021, provisional data showed.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 8,51,23,361 with 18,43,143 deaths. India reported 2,43,953 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,49,649 deaths while 99,46,867 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Meanwhile, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on January 3 reportedly granted restricted emergency use authorisation for the Serum Institute of India (SII)'s 'Covishield' and Bharat Biotech's 'Covaxin' vaccines against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The 'Covishield' vaccine, developed by University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, is being produced in the country by the Serum Institute. Bharat Biotech has developed 'Covaxin' - India's first indigenous vaccine against COVID-19.

Economy:

The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) was at 56.4 in December, a tick higher than November's reading of 56.3 and above the critical 50.0 threshold for the fifth straight month.

Commenting on the latest survey results, Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at IHS Markit said, The latest PMI results for the Indian manufacturing sector continued to point to an economy on the mend, as a supportive demand environment and firms' efforts to rebuild safety stocks underpinned another sharp rise in production. It's important to emphasise the broad-based nature of the recovery, with marked expansions in both sales and output noted across each of the three monitored sub-sectors.

Once again, the survey brought the bad news of falling employment. However, the trend for jobs is at least moving in the right direction as the rate of contraction softened to the weakest in the current nine-month period of reduction. The latest available official data pointed to a 3.5% annual increase in manufacturing production during October, when the PMI Output Index had strengthened considerably. In the two months since, growth lost some momentum and we are likely to see the official results showing a similar pattern.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 0.17%. On Monday (4 January 2021) RIL sought urgent intervention of government authorities to stop the vandalism of Jio mobile towers by protesters agitating against the Centre's new farm laws. The petition for the same will be filed by the company's subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday (4 January 2021). These acts of violence have endangered the lives of thousands of its employees and caused damage and disruption to the vital communications infrastructure, sales and service outlets run by its subsidiaries in the two states,” the conglomerate said in a statement.

Cadila Healthcare gained 1.67% after the drug major on Sunday said it has received DCGI approval to initiate Phase-III clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, ZyCoV-D. The company announced that it will be starting Phase-III clinical trials of it plasmid DNA vaccine to prevent COVID-19, ZyCoV-D after having received permissions from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). The firm will be initiating Phase-III clinical trial in around 30,000 volunteers. ZyCoV-D was found to be safe, well tolerated and immunogenic in the Phase I/II clinical trials, as per the company's disclosure filed on Sunday, 3 January 2021.

Adani Green Energy rose 1.52%. Adani Renewable Energy Holding Eight (AREHEightL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Green Energy (AGEL) received LOA for 600 MW WindSolar Hybrid project. AREHEightL participated in a tender issued by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for setting up 1,200 MW ISTS-connected Wind-Solar Hybrid Power Project. The fixed tariff for this project capacity is Rs. 2.41/ kWh for a period of 25 years. The project is expected to be commissioned in 18 months from the effective date of PPA. With this project, total renewable energy project capacity of AGEL now stands at 14,795 MW, of which 2,950 MW projects are operational and 11,845 MW projects are under implementation.

Adani Ports & Special Economic Zones (APSEZ) fell 0.89%. The company handled cargo volume of 27.2 million metric tonnes (MMT) in December 2020 (including cargo volume of 3.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of Krishnapatnam Port acquired in October 2020).The growth excluding Krishnapatnam Port Co. (KPCL) was 14% on month-on-month (M-o-M) basis and 28% on year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis. In December 2020, Mundra port handled highest ever cargo volume of 15.24 million metric tonnes (MMT) registering a cargo volume growth of 44% on Y-o-Y basis. It also achieved highest container throughput of 5,86,952 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU)'s and continues to be the largest container port in the country.

Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) rallied 6.86% after the company recorded highest ever production and sales in December 2020. JSPL Steel operations reported their highest ever monthly production volumes with 7.27 lakh tonnes during December 2020, recording a 30.05% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) rise from 5.59 lakh tonnes in December 2019. On a month-on-month (M-o-M) basis, production soared 18.40% in December 2020 from 6.14 lakh tonnes in November 2020. On a Y-o-Y basis, sales surged 25.39% to 7.11 lakh tonnes in December 2020 compared with 5.67 lakh tonnes in December 2019. On M-o-M basis, sales jumped 25.84% in December 2020 from 5.65 lakh tonnes in November 2020.

Bajaj Auto added 1.09%. The two-wheeler maker's total sales rose 11% to 372,532 units in December 2020 from 336,055 units in December 2019. While total domestic sales declined by 9% to 139,606 units, total exports improved by 27% to 232,926 units in December 2020 over December 2019. During the month, the company's total two-wheeler sales increased by 19% year-on-year (YoY) to 338,584 units. In the commercial vehicles segment, Bajaj Auto sold 33,948 vehicles in December 2020, which is lower by 34% as compared to 51,253 vehicles sold in the same period last year.

BEML surged 3.41% after the company said that its promoter Government of India (GoI) has decided to divest 26% stake in the company through strategic disinvestment with transfer of management control. GoI has appointed SBI Capital Markets (SBICAP) as its Transaction Advisor to advise and manage the strategic disinvestment process,” the company said in a BSE filing made on Saturday (2 January 2021). BEML lastly said that the disinvestment process is to be implemented through open competitive bidding route.

Shares of CSB Bank gained 2.7% after the bank said that its total deposits increased 16.48% to Rs 17,752.97 crore in Q3 December 2020 from Rs 15,241.11 crore in Q3 December 2019. Of the total deposits, CASA was at Rs 5,392.96 crore (up 23.88% YoY) while the term deposits were at 12,360.01 crore (up 13.52% YoY) as on 31 December 2020. The bank's gross advances surged 22.64% to Rs 13,425.24 crore in Q3 December 2020 from Rs 10,947.28 crore in Q3 December 2019. Advances against gold & gold jewellery during the December 2020 quarter jumped by 60.36% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 5,633.75 crore.

Federal Bank jumped 3.82% after the bank's total deposits increased by 12% to Rs 1,61,670 crore in Q3 FY21 from Rs 1,44,592 crore in Q3 FY20. At the end of the December 2020 quarter, the private lender's customer deposits were at Rs 1,56,973 crore (up 13% YoY), interbank deposits were at Rs 2,849 crore (up 51% YoY) and certificates of deposit stood at Rs 1,848 crore (down 57% YoY).

Alkyl Amines Chemicals surged 16.28% after the company said that its board will consider stock split on 2 February 2021.

Global Markets:

The Dow Jones Futures 30 were trading 156 points higher, indicating a strong start in US markets today.

European shares advanced on Monday. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be the main focus for European markets, especially after U.K.'s separation from the EU was completed on New Year's Eve.

The U.K. is set to start rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, marking another step in the global battle against the pandemic. However, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday that more restrictions were likely on the way as COVID-19 cases keep rising.

Asian stocks rose on Monday as the first trading day of 2021 kicked off. A private survey released Monday showed Chinese manufacturing activity expanding in December, with the Caixin/Markit manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the month coming in at 53.0. That compared against November's reading of 54.9. The 50-level in PMI readings separates expansion from contraction.

The final au Jibun Bank Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to a seasonally adjusted 50.0 in December from the previous month's 49.0 and a preliminary 49.7 reading. Investors are cautiously watching runoff elections in Georgia for two U.S. Senate seats on Tuesday that will determine which party controls the Senate.

Domestic equity benchmarks ended with decent gains on Friday. The Nifty settled above the 14,000 mark. As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, gained 117.65 points or 0.25% to 47,868.98. The Nifty 50 index added 33.35 points or 0.24% to 14,015.10.

The broader market outperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.24% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.90%.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 2043 shares rose and 953 shares fell. A total of 174 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 8,34,45,600 with 18,18,387 deaths. India reported 2,54,254 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,48,994 deaths while 98,83,461 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Economy:

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of December 2020 is Rs 1,15,174 crore of which CGST is Rs 21,365 crore, SGST is Rs 27,804 crore, IGST is Rs 57,426 crore (including ₹ 27,050 crore collected on import of goods) and Cess is Rs 8,579 crore (including Rs 971 crore collected on import of goods). The total number of GSTR-3B Returns filed for the month of November up to 31st December 2020 is 87 lakhs.

The government's fiscal deficit for April-November 2020 soared to Rs 10.76 lakh crore, or 135% of the full year budgeted target of Rs 7.96 lakh crore, as the government's finances continued to be stretched due to lower revenues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic slowdown. Expenditure for the period has been 62% of the Budgeted estimate vs 65.3% last year.

Contracting for the ninth consecutive month, the output of India's eight core infrastructure sectors dropped by 2.6% in November, mainly due to decline in production of natural gas, refinery products, steel and cement. The production of eight core sectors had recorded a growth of 0.7% in November 2019.

Barring coal, fertiliser and electricity, all sectors - crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, steel and cement - recorded negative growth in November 2020.

During April-November, the sectors' output dropped by 11.4% as compared to a growth of 0.3% in the same period of the previous year.

The government on Thursday said that foreign direct investment (FDI) equity inflows into India grew 21% to $35.33 billion in the April-October period of FY21 from $29.31 billion a year ago. In a statement on its highlights for 2020, the Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT) also said that 26 FDI applications marked to it were disposed of during the year.

December Auto Sales:

Maruti Suzuki rose 0.50% to Rs 7688. The car major said its total sales rose 20.2% to 160,226 units in December 2020 from 133,296 units in December 2019.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) gained 1.62% to Rs 732.25. The company's total auto sales skid 10.30% to 35,187 units in December 2020 as against 39,230 units in December 2019. Sequentially, the auto sales jumped 7.52% in December 2020 compared with 32,726 units in November 2020.

M&M's total tractor sales soared 25% to 22,417 units in December 2020 over 17,991 units in December 2019. While the domestic sales rose 23% YoY to 21,173 units, tractor exports jumped 60% YoY to 1,244 units during the month.

Separately, M&M and Ford Motor Company have mutually, amicably determined they will not complete a previously announced automotive joint venture between their companies.

Escorts rose 2.40% to Rs 1289.85 after company said its tractor sales jumped 88% to 7,733 units in December 2020 over December 2019. On a sequential basis, however, the tractor sales declined 23.9% in December 2020 from 10,165 units sold in November 2020.

Eicher Motors added 0.90% at Rs 2553. VE Commercial Vehicles, an unlisted subsidiary of Eicher Motors, announced that its total commercial vehicles (CV) sales fell 3% to 4,892 units in December 2020 from 5,042 units in December 2019. Sequentially, however, total CV sales jumped 31.8% in December 2020 from 3,710 units sold in November 2020.

Ashok Leyland advanced 3.72% to Rs 99 after the commercial vehicles maker's total sales jumped 14% to 12,762 units in December 2020 from 11,168 units sold in December 2019. Sequentially, the company's total auto sales advanced 19.73% last month from 10,659 units sold in November 2020.

SML Isuzu slipped 0.38% to Rs 479.95 after the company posted a 7% decline in December 2020 sales to 509 units from 549 units posted in December 2019. The company's sale for the Q3 December 2020 rose 1% YoY to 1607 units.

Atul Auto fell 0.38% after its December 2020 sales declined 57.85% year on year to 1,728 units from 4,100 units sold in December 2019.

Stocks in Spotlight:

MOIL rose 2.52% to Rs 146.70 after the company hiked prices of manganese ore and other products with effect from 1 January 2021. MOIL said prices of all Ferro grades of manganese ore having Manganese Mn-37% and above have been increased by 10% and all the other Ferro grades of Manganese Ore having Manganese below Mn-37% have been increased by 15%.

MOIL further added that prices of all SMGR grades (Mn-30% & Mn-25%) and all grades of Fines have been increased by 15%. The company hiked prices of all grades of chemical grades of manganese ore by 10%. The state-run miner said that price of Electrolytic Manganese Di-oxide (EMD) were kept unchanged.

Bharat Dynamics gained 2.76% to Rs 348.45 after the company said that it is geared up to take up export orders for Akash Missile. With the announcement from the Union Cabinet regarding clearance of Akash Weapon System for export, Bharat Dynamics (BDL), the manufacturer of Akash Missile, is geared up to take up export order.

Given the export potential and demand of Akash in the international market, BDL has been promoting the product at various forums including national and international exhibitions The missile being offered for exports will be of a different version. BDL is already supplying Torpedoes to a foreign country, it added.

Rain Industries jumped 13.95% to Rs 144.15. Rain CII Carbon, the wholly-owned step down subsidiary of Rain Industries, has completed the sale of its wholly owned subsidiaries namely RUTGERS Polymers, Canada and Handy Chemicals (U.S.A.) for an aggregate cash consideration of Rs 637.40 crore. Both the companies were acquired by CPS Performance Materials Topco. The consideration received from the sale of above two subsidiaries will be utilized for repayment of debt and other general corporate needs of the company.

Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) added 1.39% to Rs 269.75. The company said its subsidiary, Jindal Power, was declared the successful bidder for Gare Palma IV/1 coal mine by the Ministry of Coal. The company won the auction for the coal mine at 25% bid premium of the representative price.

Global Markets:

Shares in Europe and Asia are shut today on account of New Year. US stocks advanced on Thursday as investors closed the book on a turbulent year of pandemic, recession and recovery. All three major indexes gained ground, with the Dow and S&P 500 picking up steam in the session's final minutes to exit 2020 at record highs.

All eyes are on two U.S. Senate races in Georgia next week that will determine control of the chamber and influence Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's ability to enact his agenda.

Domestic equity barometers ended near the flat line on Thursday. As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, added 5.11 points or 0.01% to 47,751.33. The Nifty 50 index lost 0.20 points as it closed at 13,981.75.

The Sensex hit a record high of 47,896.97 while the Nifty hit a record high of 14,024.85 in intraday trade.

HDFC (up 1.27%), Sun Pharma (up 1.10%), Divis Lab (up 1.01%), ICICI Bank (up 0.99%), Asian Paints (up 0.96%) were the top Nifty gainers.

Shree Cement (down 2.44%), Ultratech Cement (down 1.41%), Bharti Airtel (down 1.29%), Grasim (down 1.17%) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.12%) were the top Nifty losers.

The broader market outperformed the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.20% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.36%.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1764 shares rose and 1242 shares fell. A total of 164 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 8,27,09,354 with 18,05,035 deaths. India reported 2,57,656 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,48,738 deaths while 98,60,280 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Economy:

As per the Reserve Bank of India, India's current account surplus shrank to $15.5 billion in the July-September quarter from a record $19.2 billion in April-June as its merchandise trade deficit grew. The surplus stood at 2.4% of the gross domestic product in the latest quarter, compared with a deficit of $7.6 billion, or 1.1% of GDP, in the same period a year ago, RBI data showed.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index slipped 0.64% to 24,173.50 on profit taking. The index advanced 1.34% in the past three sessions.

Mphasis (down 3.17%), TCS (down 1.52%), Tech Mahindra (down 0.94%) and Larsen & Toubro Infotech (down 0.12%) declined.

Meanwhile, MindTree (up 1.59%), Wipro (up 0.55%), Infosys (up 0.66%), HCL Tech (up 0.53%), Coforge (up 0.20%) and Info Edge India (up 0.13%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) lost 0.51% to Rs 1285. The company's construction arm secured 'significant' orders from prestigious clients for two of its businesses. As per L&T's classification, the valuation of the 'significant' contract lies between Rs 1,000 to 2,500 crore.

Reliance Industries (RIL) shed 0.58% to Rs 1984. Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), subsidiary of RIL, will make all off-net domestic voice calls free, starting 1 January 2021. On-net domestic voice calls have always been free on the Jio network. As per directions of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Bill and Keep regime is being implemented in the country from 1 January 2021, thereby ending interconnect usage charges (IUC) for all domestic voice calls.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) advanced 1.13% to Rs 35.80 after the company said it bagged orders worth Rs 3,200 crore for hydro projects. BHEL has bagged orders valued at Rs 3,200 crore, for Electro-Mechanical (E&M) works for a Hydro Electric Project (HEP) in Andhra Pradesh and E&M works of pump-motor sets for lift irrigation schemes (LIS) in Telangana.

The orders have been received from the EPC contractor for the projects Megha Engineering & Infrastructure (MEIL) and BHEL's scope of work in all the above projects includes design, engineering, manufacturing, supply and supervision of erection, testing & commissioning of the equipment and associated auxiliaries.

Filatex India gained 3.79% to Rs 47.95 after the company announced commencement of captive generation of Solar power at its Dahej and Dadra units. Filatex India said that its proposed installation of captive rooftop solar power generation of 1.0 megawatts (MW) at Dahej and 0.4 MW at Dadra has been successfully completed and commenced commercial operation from 30 December 2020.

Tejas Networks hit an upper circuit of 5% at Rs 137.45 after the company said that it has received a purchase order amounting to $13 million from a leading telecommunications service provider in South East Asia.

As per the contract, Tejas Networks will supply and install its TJ1400 ultra-converged broadband products (TJ1400UCB) to extend high-speed broadband services to underserved rural communities in the region. The project is expected to be executed within the next 12 months, the company said.

Union Bank of India slipped 1.56% to Rs 31.45. Shareholders of Union Bank of India on Wednesday approved the bank's proposal for raising up to Rs 6,800 crore equity capital to fund business growth.

FDC rose 1.97% to Rs 332. The company said it is in the process of expanding its production capacity by installation of an additional BFS machine at one of its existing plants located at Waluj in Maharashtra. The estimated cost of expansion would be around Rs 74 crore at first stage and around Rs 26 crore at later stage. The said process is spread over a period of 20 months. The total production capacity of the said plant is likely to be increased by 30 to 33% after commissioning and completion of all the regulatory requirements, it added.

Global Markets:

European stocks declined on Wednesday as investors booked profits after recent run. A coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford while AstraZeneca is being authorized for emergency use in the U.K. So far, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been given to 600,000 people in the U.K. Still, the U.K. government outlined plans on Wednesday to impose stricter coronavirus restrictions on millions of people across England as a new strain of the virus spreads across the country.

Asian stocks advanced on Thursday. China on Thursday said its factory activity expanded in December. The country's official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for December came in at 51.9, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. That was a slight decline compared to November's reading of 52.1. Still, the December figure was above the 50-level that separates expansion from contraction.

In US, stocks closed higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Industrials nudging up to a record, as investors looked towards an improving economic outlook in 2021 on the back of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and hopes for even more fiscal support.

The U.S. trade deficit in goods climbed to $84.8 billion in November from $80.4 billion the month before. Pending home sales slid 2.6% in November.

The domestic equity benchmarks ended with decent gains after a volatile session on Wednesday. As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, added 47.51 points or 0.10% at 47,660.59. The Nifty 50 index advanced 49.45 points or 0.35% to 13,981.95.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.53% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.37%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1675 shares rose and 1275 shares fell. A total of 184 shares were unchanged.

Coronavirus Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 81,975,991 with 1,789,007 deaths. India reported 262,272 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 148,439 deaths while 9,834,141 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

The central government on Monday, 28 December 2020 extended the existing COVID-19 guidelines till 31 January 2021 as well as maintained strict surveillance and caution during this period amid concerns of new and highly infectious COVID-19 strain in the UK. The new Coronavirus variant discovered in the UK has now been detected in Taiwan.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Maharashtra government has extended lockdown restrictions in the state till 31 January 2021.

Economy:

The government has invited the protesting farmer' unions for talks today to end the impasse over the three farm laws. This will be the sixth round of talk between the government and farmers to end the deadlock. The centre has written to the 40 protesting farmers' unions and invited them for talks. Apart from the farm laws, discussions will be held on MSP and on legislations related to air quality and the electricity.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Auto index rose 1.34% to 9,164.80. The index declined 0.25% in the previous session.

Eicher Motors (up 2.46%), Maruti Suzuki (up 2.12%), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.69%), Hero MotoCorp (up 0.85%) and Tata Motors (up 0.75%) advanced while Bharat Forge (down 1.37%) and Ashok Leyland (down 0.21%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

AstraZeneca Pharma India rose 2.34% to Rs 4645.20 after the Britain's health regulator approved emergency supply of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in U.K.

AstraZeneca PLC in a press release on Wednesday said the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has provided authorisation for emergency supply of COVID-19 vaccine for the active immunisation of individuals 18 years or older.

AstraZeneca aims to supply millions of doses in the first quarter as part of an agreement with the government to supply up to 100 million doses in total.

Following the development, Wockhardt surged 7.71% to Rs 549.25. The scrip jumped 11.31% to hit the day's high at 558, from its intraday low of 501.30 in trade today.

Wockhardt in August this year announced entering into an agreement with the UK Government to fill finish COVID-19 vaccines. The manufacturing would be undertaken at CP Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Wockhardt based in Wrexham, North Wales.

As per the terms of the agreement, Wockhardt has reserved manufacturing capacity to allow for the supply of multiple vaccines to the UK Government in its fight against COVID19, including AZD1222, the vaccine co-invented by the University of Oxford and its spinout company, Vaccitech and licensed by AstraZeneca.

JMC Projects (India) gained 2.41% to Rs 68.05. The company announced that it had secured building projects in South India worth approximately Rs 698 crore.

Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) rose 3.55% to Rs 268.55. The steel maker was awarded 'Regular Supplier' status by Indian Railways for 60kg 880 grade (90UTS) Rails. JSPL has become India's first private company to get 'Regular Supplier' status from Indian Railways to supply 60kg 880 grade (90UTS) Rails.

UPL rose 3.42% to Rs 470.30. The company said that it had completed the pre-payment of US$410 million of 3.25% Senior Notes due October 2021. This prepayment is in line with its commitment to reduce debt.

Coromandel International tumbled 5.64% to Rs 803.55 after the counter witnessed multiple block deals in early trade today, 30 December 2020.

E.I.D.Parry (India) said that it sold 58.50 lakh shares of Coromandel International in the open market at an average price of Rs. 803.1894 per share. Post the share sale, the company held 56.42% stake in Coromandel International as against 58.42% stake as on 30 September 2020. The company said that the proceeds of the sale will be used to bring down the debt of the company including its wholly owned subsidiary, Parry Sugars Refinery India and for general corporate purposes. The scrip jumped 5.84% to Rs 353.15 on the BSE.

Kalpataru Power Transmission added 3.30% to Rs 318.10 after the company said it has secured new orders/notification of award of about Rs 900 crore. The company said that its T&D (transmission and distribution) business has secured an order from the overseas market. The company has also received engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) orders for pipeline laying and associated works in India.

Global Markets:

European stocks advanced on Wednesday. Lawmakers in the U.K. are to vote on Wednesday, whether to approve the post-Brexit trade deal reached by negotiators on Christmas Eve. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on parliament to back the deal.

Most Asian shares ended higher on Wednesday. Today is the final trading day in 2020 for stocks in Japan and South Korea as their markets will be closed on Thursday.

China's 2019 GDP growth was revised downward to 6.0%, according to a statement released Wednesday by the country's National Bureau of Statistics. That compared against a pre-revision 2019 growth rate of 6.1%.

U.S. stocks declined moderately from record high on Tuesday, 29 December 2020, with all three indexes the S&P 500 index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite closing lower, as investors elected to cash in on the recent strength in the markets.

At the close of trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index declined 68.30 points, or 0.22%, to 30,335.67. The S&P 500 index was down 8.32 points, or 0.22%, to 3,727.04. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 49.20 points, or 0.38%, to 12,850.22.

President Donald Trump signed legislation late Sunday providing $900 billion in aid to individuals and businesses and $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies. Trump has called for the direct payments included in the bill to be increased to $2,000 from $600, and the House voted Monday to approve a measure increasing the size of the stimulus checks. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., blocked an effort by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to unanimously approve the House bill.

In U.S. economic data, the S&P Case-Shiller home price index for October showed a year-over-year rise of 7.9%, the fastest pace in six years.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rallied 246.61 points or 0.52% to 47,600.75. The Nifty 50 index added 54.9 points or 0.4% to 13,928.25.

The Sensex hit a fresh record high of 47,714.55 while the Nifty scaled an all-time high of 13,967.60 in morning trade. Investor sentiment was upbeat after President Trump signed a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid while the U.K. and the E.U. struck a Brexit trade deal last week.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.07% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.16%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,525 shares rose and 1,484 shares fell. A total of 171 shares were unchanged.

On Monday, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,588.93 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 1,386.55 crore, provisional data showed.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 8,12,78,435 with 17,74,395 deaths. India reported 2,68,581 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,48,153 deaths while 98,07,569 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Meanwhile, India recorded 6 cases of a mutant strain of COVID-19, which is 70% more transmissible. It was first reported in the United Kingdom a few days ago.

All six patients recently returned from Britain. As per a government statement, three samples in NIMHANS of Bengaluru, two in CCMB, Hyderabad and one in NIV, Pune have been detected out of all the samples tested.

Economy:

The Ministry of Finance has released the 9th weekly installment of Rs 6,000 crore to the states to meet the GST compensation shortfall. Out of this, an amount of over Rs 5,516 crore has been released to 23 states and an amount of over Rs 483 crore has been released to the three Union Territories with Legislative Assembly, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry who are members of the GST Council. The remaining five states, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation. The amount released this week was the 9th instalment of such funds provided to the states. The amount has been borrowed this week at an interest rate of 5.15%.

Stocks in Spotlight:

ICICI Bank gained 1.81%. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) sold 2.002% stake of the private lender between 27 November 2018 and 24 December 2020. Post transaction, LIC's stake in ICICI Bank reduced to 6.744% from 8.746% earlier.

HDFC Bank rose 0.81%. The board of directors of HDFC Bank has recommended the appointment of the part-time chairperson of the bank and has submitted its recommendation to the Reserve Bank of India for approval. The tenure of the existing part-time chairperson of the bank, Shyamala Gopinath, shall end at the close of business hours of 1 January 2021, pursuant to the tenure approved by the Reserve Bank of India.

Titan Company slipped 0.19%. The company's board approved corporate guarantees worth Rs 906 crore to various banks on behalf of wholly-owned subsidiary, Titan Commodity Trading. The corporate guarantees are provided by the company to guarantee funding limits to be availed by Titan Commodity up to Rs 906 crore from various banks. These guarantees are against overall limits being availed by Titan Commodity primarily required for issuing bank guarantees to Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) against margin and for meeting other working capital requirements.

Ahluwalia Contracts (India) rallied 3.89% after the company said it has secured new order aggregating to Rs 309.44 crore. The order calls for construction of high-rise multi storied residential complex, located at Z-1, Project, Phase-III, Nandankanan Road, in Bhubaneswar (Orissa). The total order inflow during the FY21 stands at Rs 2,086.44 crore.

Biocon fell 1.14%. The pharmaceutical company said it has expanded generic formulations portfolio with the launch of Tacrolimus capsules in the US. Tacrolimus, a calcineurin inhibitor, is an immunosuppressant used in the treatment of organ transplant patients, which reduces the body's ability to reject a transplanted organ. It has been particularly effective in treating patients of renal transplant for more than two decades.

TVS Motor Company rose 0.87%. The company introduced the 2021 TVS Apache RTR 160 4V with Bluetooth enabled TVS SmartXonnect in Bangladesh. This is the first-of-its-kind two-wheeler connected cluster technology in the country.

Great Eastern Shipping Company (G E Shipping) fell 0.19%. The company delivered its 2000-built Suezmax Crude Carrier Jag Lateef to the buyers, contracted for sale in November 2020. G E Shipping's current fleet stands at 46 vessels, comprising 33 tankers (10 crude carriers, 18 product tankers, 5 LPG carrier) and 13 dry bulk carriers with an average age of 12.24 years aggregating 3.66 million deadweight tonnage (mn dwt).

Global Markets:

The Dow Jones Futures 30 were trading 155 points higher, indicating a strong start in US market today.

European markets advanced as traders reacted to Brexit developments and President Donald Trump signing a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill into law.

The Brexit trade deal between the U.K. and the EU was announced. The agreement, sealed after markets closed on 24 December 2020, still needs to be approved this week by U.K. lawmakers before the 31 December 2020 deadline. The 27 ambassadors from EU member nations on Monday formally approved the deal.

Most Asian markets climbed on Tuesday as investor risk appetite improved on hopes that the long-awaited U.S. pandemic relief package would be expanded. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 hit levels not seen since August 1990.

In US, stocks rallied on Monday, with each of Wall Street's main indexes closing at record levels as President Donald Trump's signing of a long-awaited $2.3 trillion pandemic aid bill increased optimism for an economic recovery.

Trump averted a government shutdown late Sunday, and extended unemployment benefits to millions of Americans. The signing came days after Trump suggested he would veto the legislation, demanding $2,000 direct payments to Americans, instead of $600.

The domestic equity benchmarks ended near the day's high on Monday, supported by positive global cues. Barring the Nifty Pharma index, all the other sectoral indices on the NSE ended in the green. Banks, metals and realty stocks rallied.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 380.21 points or 0.81% to 47,353.75. The Nifty 50 index added 134 points or 0.97% to 13,883.25.

Investor sentiment was upbeat after the U.S. President Trump signed a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid while the U.K. and the E.U. struck a a Brexit trade deal last week.

The broader market ended firm. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.83% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rallied 1.49%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2027 shares rose and 991 shares fell. A total of 179 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 80,762,012 with 1,764,317 deaths. India reported 277,301 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 147,901 deaths while 9,782,669 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty PSU Bank index rose 2.77% to 1,751.05. The index has added 6.56% in three sessions.

Canara Bank (up 3.64%), SBI (up 3.26%), Punjab National Bank (up 2.86%), UCO Bank (up 2.81%), Bank Of Baroda (up 2.71%), Union Bank of India (up 2.34%), Indian Bank (up 1.85%), CBI (up 1.08%), Jammu and Kashmir Bank (up 1.08%), Indian Overseas Bank (up 0.94%), Bank of India (up 0.72%) and Bank of Maharashtra (up 0.38%) advanced.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Biocon slipped 3.10% to Rs 466.85. The company said that its subsidiary, Biocon Biologics, had been informed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of a deferred action on the Biologics license application (BLA) for MYL-1402O, a proposed biosimilar to Avastin (bevacizumab). Avastin is a cancer medicine that interferes with the growth and spread of cancer cells in the body.

Biocon further said that to complete the application, the Agency noted that an inspection of the manufacturing facility is required as a part of the standard review process. However, due to restrictions on travel related to COVID-19, the Agency is unable to conduct an inspection during the current review cycle. “We await the dates for the inspection,” it added.

Reliance Industries (RIL) added 0.47% to Rs 2003.25. The company said that it will acquire 50% shares held by IMG Singapore in IMG-Reliance, for a cash consideration not exceeding Rs 52.08 crore. IMG Reliance (IMG-R) is a joint venture between IMG Worldwide LLC (IMG) and the Company. IMG Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of IMG, holds 50% of the share capital of IMG-R.

IMG-R is engaged in the business of creation, management, implementation and commercialisation of sporting, fashion and entertainment events in India. Post completion of acquisition, RIL will rebrand sports and fashion joint venture IMG-R as its completely owned subsidiary.

Paisalo Digital hit an upper circuit of 20% at Rs 625.55. As per the bulk deal data on the NSE, SBI Life Insurance Company on Thursday (24 December 2020) bought 38,00,000 shares (8.98% of equity) of Paisalo Digital at average price of Rs 490 per share.

Meanwhile, Antara India Evergreen Fund (sold 3.54%), Davos International Fund (sold 0.68%), Elara India Opportunities Fund (sold 2.6%) and Heshika Growth Fund (sold 1.89%) pared their stake in the company at average price of Rs 490.

Dixon Technologies (India) jumped 5.52% to Rs 13424.45. The company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Padget Electronics, has signed an agreement with Motorola for manufacturing of smartphones. The products will be manufactured at Padget's manufacturing facility situated at Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Cadila Healthcare shed 0.23% at Rs 488.50. The drug maker announced on Thursday (24 December 2020) that its plasmid DNA vaccine to prevent COVID-19, ZyCoV-D was found to be safe, well tolerated and immunogenic in the Phase I/II clinical trials. The company is now planning to initiate Phase III clinical trial in around 30,000 volunteers upon receiving necessary approvals.

The Phase II study of the vaccine ZyCoV-D had been conducted in over 1000 healthy adult volunteers as part of the adaptive Phase I/II dose escalation, multi-centric, randomized, double-blind placebo controlled study. The vaccine was found to be safe and immunogenic. The trial has been reviewed by an independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) and reports have been submitted to Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) regularly for the update on safety outcome.

Coal India gained 2.17% to Rs 139.15. The state-run coal miner announced that its board has accorded its approval to venture into aluminium chain and solar power value chain. The company will set up three specific-purpose vehicles (SPVs) subject to obtaining concurrence from Niti Aayog and DIPAM. The company will set up solar power value chain business vertical, new & renewable energy (non-conventional) business vertical and Integrated Aluminium complex: a greenfield project by Central Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India.

NIIT advanced 3.44% to Rs 207.30 after the company said its board approved a proposal to buyback upto 98.75 lakh equity shares at Rs 240 each for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 237 crore. The buyback amounts to approximately 6.978% of the total issued and paid up equity share capital of the company.

Westlife Development rose 3.35% to Rs 445.30. The company said that it had resumed new store openings across its markets. The Company has opened four new stores post March 2020 as it steadily continues to move towards pre-COVID levels of business. In another development, the royalty for FY21 as also FY 22 remains at 4%, it added.

Global Markets:

Shares in Europe and Asia advanced on Monday. Traders reacted to the announcement of a Brexit trade deal between the U.K. and the EU. The agreement, sealed after markets closed on 24 December, still needs to be approved this week by U.K. lawmakers before the 31 December deadline.

US President Donald Trump averted a government shutdown late Sunday, and extended unemployment benefits to millions of Americans. Trump signed a $2.3 trillion funding measure that includes $900 billion for coronavirus relief and $1.4 trillion for government funding through next September.  The signing came days after Trump suggested he would veto the legislation, demanding $2,000 direct payments to Americans, instead of $600.

Meanwhile, shares of Chinese tech giant Alibaba in Hong Kong were in the spotlight once again on Monday. That came after Chinese regulators ordered Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group to rectify its businesses. The stock had also dived last Thursday following reports that Chinese regulators will probe the tech behemoth for suspected monopolistic behaviour.

Profits at Chinese industrial firms in November rose 15.5% as compared with a year earlier, according to data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics over the weekend.

In US, the S&P 500 ended higher at the close of a shortened session on Thursday as investors headed into the long Christmas weekend.

Domestic indices ended with robust gains on Thursday, extending their winning run to third consecutive session. The Nifty scaled 13,700 mark and managed to close near the 13,750 level. Banks and financials stocks rallied while IT shares corrected.

As per the provisional closing data, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 529.36 points or 1.14% at 46,973.54. The Nifty 50 index gained 148.18 points or 1.09% at 13,749.35.

The broader market lagged the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.06% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.59%.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1,615 shares rose and 1,197 shares fell. A total of 151 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 34 stocks advanced while 16 stocks declined.

Domestic stock market will remain shut tomorrow (25 December) on account of Christmas.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 7,87,12,623 with 17,30,766 deaths. India reported 2,83,849 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,46,756 deaths while 96,93,173 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Economy:

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal for revision of the guidelines for obtaining license for providing Direct-To-Home (DTH) broadcasting service in India. License for the DTH will be issued for a period of 20 years in place of present 10 years. Further the period of License may be renewed by 10 years at a time. License fee has been revised from 10% of GR to 8% of AGR. AGR will be calculated by deduction of GST from GR. License Fee will be collected on quarterly basis in lieu of presently annual basis.

New Listing:

Shares of Mrs. Bector Food Specialities were trading at Rs 589 at 15:10 IST on the BSE, a premium of 104.74% over the initial public offer price of Rs 288. The stock was listed at Rs 501, a premium of 74% to the initial public offer (IPO) price. So far the stock hit a high of Rs 601.2 and low of Rs 500. On the BSE, 34.06 lakh shares were traded on the counter so far.

The initial public offer (IPO) of Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities received bids for 262.10 crore shares as against 1.32 crore shares. The issue was subscribed 198.02 times. The non-institutional investors category was subscribed 620.86 times. The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) category was subscribed 176.85 times. The retail individual investors category was subscribed 29.33 times. The issue opened for subscription on 15 December and closed on 17 December. The price band for the IPO was set at Rs 286-288 per share.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Tata Motors added 3.84% after the company reassured that recent issues at UK ports have had no immediate impact for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Reassuring stakeholders, the auto major on Thursday said: Jaguar Land Rover has comprehensive contingency planning and actions in place to respond to ongoing COVID challenges and disruption. This is subject to constant review. Recent issues at UK ports have had no immediate impact for Jaguar Land Rover. Our guidance of improved growth, profitability and cash flows in second half of the year continues to hold.

Shares of ACC and Ambuja Cements gained 2% to 4% in trade after the companies announced the renewal of technical know-how fees (TKH) to parent at 1% of net sales for the next two years. In separate BSE filings made after market hours yesterday, ACC and Ambuja Cements said that their respective boards had approved the renewal of the existing technology and know-how agreement (TKH Agreement) with Holcim Technology (HTL) under which they pay TKH fees at 1% of net sales each year, to HTL, for a period of 2 years with effect from 01 January 2021, i.e., on the same terms of the existing TKH Agreement.

Aurobindo Pharma gained 2.18%. Aurobindo Pharma and US-based COVAXX have entered into an exclusive license agreement to develop, commercialize and manufacture UB-612, the first multitope peptide-based vaccine to fight COVID-19, for India and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) agency. Under the signed agreement, Aurobindo Pharma has obtained the exclusive rights to develop, manufacture and sell COVAXX's UB-612 vaccine in India and to UNICEF, as well as non-exclusive rights in other select emerging and developing markets.

Caplin Point Laboratories rose 2.35% to Rs 507.45 after the drug maker said its subsidiary received US drug regulator's approval for etomidate injection USP. The company said that its subsidiary, Caplin Steriles, received final approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for its abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) etomidate injection USP, 20 mg/10 ml (2 mg/ml) and 40 mg/20 ml (2 mg/ml) single-dose vial presentations. The product is generic therapeutic equivalent to Amidate (etomidate) injection, of Hospira Inc.

Steel Strips Wheels (SSWL) rose 0.49%. The auto ancillary company said that it had received new export orders worth over $304,000 (approximately Rs 2.23 crore) from US and Europe. The orders are to be executed in January and February 2021 from the company's Chennai plant.

Zee Media Corporation rose 1.46%. The board of Zee Media Corporation approved the terms of raising of fund through issuance and allotment of up to 2,500, 9% p.a. unrated, unlisted, secured, redeemable NCDs bearing a face value of Rs 10 lakh each for cash at par, aggregating to up to Rs 250 crore in one or more series, on a private placement basis.

ARSS Infrastructure Projects jumped 5%. The construction company in a regulatory filing made after market hours on Wednesday announced that it has received order of Rs 301.20 crore for execution of work of four laning of Itanagar to Banderdewa section of NH-415 on EPC mode in Arunachal Pradesh.

Global Markets:

European markets were trading higher as traders grew optimistic regarding a hopeful Brexit trade deal. Britain and the European Union are said to be on the cusp of striking a post-Brexit trade deal on Thursday.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to speak with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Johnson is then expected to hold a news conference.

Most Asian markets closed higher on Thursday. Shares of Chinese tech giant Alibaba in the spotlight following reports that Chinese regulators will probe the firm for suspected monopolistic behavior.

In US, the S&P 500 closed barely in positive territory on Wednesday as an expected stimulus deal and falling jobless claims prompted investors to put their money into sectors most likely to benefit from the economy re-opening when it recovers from the global health crisis.

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 803,000 for the week ended December 19, compared to 892,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Wednesday.

Key domestic indices ended with strong gains on Wednesday, supported by buying in IT and pharma stocks. The Nifty closed above the crucial 13,600 mark. All the sectoral indices on the NSE ended in the green.

As per the provisional closing data, the BSE Sensex rallied 437.49 points or 0.95% to 46,444.18. The Nifty 50 index added 134.8 points or 1% to 13,601.10.

The broader market rallied. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index advanced 2.4% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index surged 2.65%.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 2,298 shares rose and 646 shares fell. A total of 153 shares were unchanged.

J&K District Development Council (DDC) polls:

The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a conglomeration of seven parties, on Tuesday took a significant lead in the first-ever District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir even as the alliance's main opponent, the BJP, emerged as the single largest party, sweeping the polls in many districts in the Jammu region while making some inroads in the valley.

The Gupkar alliance, a grouping of seven mainstream J&K-based parties including rivals National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party (PDP), won 112 seats; the BJP has emerged as the single largest party as it won 75 seats. The Congress has won 26 seats.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 7,80,18,199 with 17,17,124 deaths. India reported 2,89,240 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,46,444 deaths while 96,63,382 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Primary Market:

The initial public offer (IPO) of Antony Waste Handling Cell received bids for 6.87 crore shares as against 66.66 lakh shares on offer as on 23 December 2020, according to the National Stock Exchange (NSE) data at 15:15 IST. The issue was subscribed 10.31 times.

The issue opened for subscription on Monday (21 December 2020) and closes today (23 December 2020). The price band for the IPO is set at Rs 313-315 per share. An investor can bid for a minimum of 47 equity shares and in multiples thereof.

The issue comprises of a fresh issue worth Rs 85 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 6,824,933 equity shares by existing shareholders. Shares will list on 1 January 2021 on bourses.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Infosys rose 2.76% to Rs 1254.40 after IT major and Daimler AG announced a long-term strategic partnership for a technology-driven IT infrastructure transformation. Infy hit a record high of Rs 1,259 in intraday today. From its 52-week low of Rs 511.10, the counter has jumped 145%.

Wipro spurted 6.41% after the company announced a strategic digital and IT partnership deal with Metro AG. The estimated deal value for the duration of the first five years is approximately $700 million. With the intention to extend up to 4 additional years, it can be a potential spend of up to $1 billion. Wipro will deliver a complete technology, engineering and solutions transformation program for Metro AG as it positions itself as a Wholesale 360-degree provider in the hotel, restaurant and catering food industry fuelled by quality, focus and flexibility. Separately, Wipro announced that its proposed share buyback offer will open on Tuesday, 29 December 2020 and close on Monday, 11 January 2021. The company plans to buyback upto 23.75 crore equity shares at Rs 400 each.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) advanced 2.25%. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) sold 2.006% stake in M&M through market sale between 10 May 2019 and 21 December 2020. Post transaction, LIC's stake in M&M reduced to 8.430% from 10.436% earlier.

Meanwhile, JP Morgan has issued a notice to M&M's SsangYong Motor Company (SYMC), a material subsidiary, demanding the repayment of outstanding loan amount of 40 billion KRW (Korean Won) (approximately Rs 268 crore) along with interest. SYMC has intimated to the Korean Stock Exchange that it could not repay the loan amount of 40 billion KRW to JP Morgan on account of SYMC's application for rehabilitation.

Bajaj Auto rose 1.41% after the two-wheel maker announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Maharashtra to set up a manufacturing facility on a proposed investment of Rs 650 crore in Chakan, Maharashtra. The facility is expected to commence production in 2023. This facility will be utilised for manufacturing high end KTM, Husqvarna and Triumph motorcycles as well as for electric vehicles starting with Chetak.

Jubilant Foodworks gained 1.64%. Domino's Pizza franchise introduced The Unthinkable Pizza, India's first plant protein-based product, which is made entirely from plant-based proteins, is 100% vegetarian and yet has the sensory properties of chicken. The Unthinkable Pizza is expected to provide both vegetarians and non-vegetarians a good and innovative option in the menu. The pizza would be available at all Domino's Pizza restaurants across Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals rose 2.3% after the company's Swiss subsidiary and Menarini entered into a licensing pact for commercializing Ryaltris nasal spray in Europe. The licensing agreement will be effective in 33 countries throughout the Europe, including the Balkan region. Under the terms of the agreement, Glenmark will be responsible for the development and regulatory approval of Ryaltris by relevant European Regulatory Authorities, while Menarini Group will be responsible for the commercialization of Ryaltris across these markets.

Dilip Buildcon rallied 6.27% after the company said its joint venture received the letter of acceptance (LoA) on 22 December 2020 from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for a new EPC project in Rajasthan. The 8.30-km long project has bid cost of Rs 1,000.08 crore and has a completion period of 30 months.

Global Markets:

The Dow Jones futures were trading 66 points higher, indicating a positive start in the US market today.

Shares in Europe and Asia advanced on Wednesday on hopes that more U.S. fiscal aid would propel an economic recovery.

France reopened its border to England on Wednesday, requiring passengers arriving at the border to have a negative coronavirus test result. It comes after France imposed a ban on people and freight coming from the U.K. amid concerns over a fast-spreading COVID-19 mutation first identified in southeast England.

On Tuesday, EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said the bloc was making a final push to strike a Brexit trade deal with Britain, but disagreements over fishing rights remain. There have been positive reports about the talks, claiming a deal could be reached on Wednesday.

In US, the S&P 500 fell for a third straight session on Tuesday even after Congress approved a long-delayed coronavirus relief package. The broad equity benchmark dipped 0.2%, or 7.66 points, to 3,687.26 in relatively thin trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 200.94 points, or 0.7%, to 30,015.51. The Nasdaq Composite eked out a 0.5% gain to close at 12,807.92, a new record.

Congressional leaders had attached $900 billion in pandemic aid to a $1.4 trillion measure to fund the government through 30 September 2020.

On the data front, a final reading showed third-quarter gross domestic product grew 33.4% on an annualized basis. That was revised slightly up from the 33.1% pace reported last month. The economy contracted at a 31.4% rate in the April-June quarter.

As per the provisional closing data, the S&P BSE Sensex jumped 452.73 points or 0.99% to 46,006.69. The Nifty 50 index added 137.90 points or 1.03% to 13,466.30.

The broader market ended with gains. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.09% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.95%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1574 shares rose and 1,348 shares fell. A total of 170 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 43 stocks advanced while 7 stocks declined.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 7,73,64,959 with 17,02,600 deaths. India reported 2,92,518 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,46,111 deaths while 96,36,487 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

In the backdrop of a new strain of the coronavirus emerging in the United Kingdom, the Maharashtra government decided to impose a night curfew from 22 December in all the municipal areas of the state. The curfew will be in place from 11 pm to 6 am till 5 January 2020.

IBC suspension extended till March 2021:

The centre has decided to extend the suspension of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) till 31 March 2021, to help businesses cope with major stress posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

Primary Market:

The initial public offer (IPO) of Antony Waste Handling Cell received bids for 1.86 crore shares as against 66.66 lakh shares on offer as on 22 December 2020, according to the National Stock Exchange (NSE) data at 14:00 IST. The issue was subscribed 2.80 times.

The issue opened for subscription yesterday (21 December 2020) and closes on Wednesday (23 December 2020). The price band for the IPO is set at Rs 313-315 per share. An investor can bid for a minimum of 47 equity shares and in multiples thereof.

The issue comprises of a fresh issue worth Rs 85 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 6,824,933 equity shares by existing shareholders. Shares will list on 1 January 2021 on bourses.

Gainers & Losers:

Adani Ports & Special Economic Zones (up 5.71%), HCL Technologies (up 5.38%), Tech Mahindra (up 4.47%) and Infosys (up 3.75%) were top gainers in Nifty 50 segment.

Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 0.99%), Bajaj Finance (down 0.44%), HDFC (down 0.55%) and IndusInd Bank (down 0.36%) were top losers in Nifty 50 index.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) rose 1.54%. M&M on Monday said its loss-making South Korean arm SsangYong Motor Company (SYMC) has filed for bankruptcy.

Tata Motors rose 0.4%. The automobile maker announced that there will be a price increase across its commercial vehicle range, effective 1 January 2021. The steady rise in material and other input costs, impact of forex and transition to BS6 norms, have cumulatively escalated the cost of manufacturing vehicles. The company had thus far been absorbing the addition in costs but with their steady rise in line with market trend, it has become imperative to pass at least some portion of the cost increase to customers via appropriate price revisions, Tata Motors said in a filing.

Lupin rose 2.91% after the drug major received approval for its Rufinamide Oral Suspension from USFDA to market a generic equivalent of Banzel Oral Suspension of Eisai Inc. Rufinamide Oral Suspension, 40 mg/ml, is indicated for adjunctive treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) in pediatric patients 1 year of age and older, and in adults.

Sadbhav Engineering jumped 6.96%. The EPC's joint venture (JV) emerged as lowest bidder for a metro rail project in Surat, Gujarat. The project involves construction of 11.6 K.M. elevated viaduct from Kadarsha Ni Nal to Dream City dead end, including ramp for depot entry near Dream City and 10 Stations (excluding E&M, architectural finishing and roofing) for Surat Metro Rail Project Phase-1. The construction period for the same is 30 months.

Hindustan Foods soared 8.71% after the company said that it will undertake a capital expenditure of Rs 125 crore in the Northern region of India, via its wholly owned subsidiary HFL Consumer Products.

GTPL Hathway fell 0.09%. The telecom services company said that it has increased its stake in subsidiary, GTPL Abhilash, to 70.88% from 51% earlier upon conversion of 17.06 lakh cumulative convertible preference shares (CCPS) into equal number of equity shares of Rs 10 each on 21 December 2020.

JSW Steel gained 2.9%. JSW Steel Italy, the company's subsidiary, entered into a share purchase agreement (SPA) dated 21 December 2020 with Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), South Africa, for acquisition of 30.73% share capital of GSI Lucchini for a cash consideration of 1 million euros. The balance 69.67% of GSI is held by JSW Steel Italy. GSI's manufacturing unit is located in Piombino, Tuscany Region in Italy.

Cyient advanced 4%. Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce has approved the de-registration of Cyient's wholly-owned subsidiary, Cyient Engineering (Beijing).

Thermax lost 3.01%. The company has acquired remaining 24% stake in First Energy (FEPL) effective 21 December 2020. Accordingly, the equity shareholding of the company in FEPL stands increased to 100% from 76% stake, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. FEPL is an alternative energy solution company and is engaged in the business of manufacture & supply of biomass pellets, gasification technology and cooking stoves.

UFO Moviez India added 1.51%. The board of UFO Moviez India on Monday (21 December 2020) approved the company's foray into film distribution business. The company has adopted a fee-based distribution model in which it does not take any financial risk in the content.

Global Markets:

European markets were trading higher after yesterday's rout. Britain's Q3 GDP grew by a record 16%. The country is yet to make up for its 18.8% slump in the April-June period when much of the economy was shut down.

Trading was cautious amid the ongoing concerns around a fast-spreading COVID-19 mutation, that was first identified in Britain. The new variant forced the U.K. government to shut down London and other parts of southeast England and backtrack on the mixing of households over the Christmas break.

Meanwhile, the U.K. and EU remain deadlocked over post-Brexit trade relations as the 31 December 2020 deadline approaches, with disputes over issues such as fisheries plaguing talks.

Asian markets ended lower on Tuesday, as developments surrounding the coronavirus pandemic continued to weigh on investor sentiment.

In US, the S&P 500 closed lower on Monday, having clawed its way back from steep losses early in the session as investors juggled the outbreak of an ominous new strain of COVID-19 with the passage of a long-anticipated stimulus package.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37.4 points, or 0.12%, to 30,216.45, the S&P 500 lost 14.49 points, or 0.39%, to 3,694.92 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 13.12 points, or 0.1%, to 12,742.52.

The US House of Representatives passed a $892 billion coronavirus aid package aimed at throwing a lifeline to the nation's pandemic-battered economy. The relief bill, which will become law if passed by the Senate and signed by President Donald Trump, includes $600 payments to most Americans as well as additional payments to the millions of people thrown out of work during the pandemic.

The White House has said Trump will sign the bill. The legislation also expands a small-business lending program by about $284 billion and steers money to schools, airlines, transit systems and vaccine distribution. The small-business loan and grant program, known as the paycheck protection program, will exclude publicly traded companies from eligibility.

Key equity indices corrected sharply on Monday, tracking weak global cues. All sectoral indices on the NSE ended in the red. PSU stocks, banks and metal shares witnessed major selling.

As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, lost 1406.73 points or 3% to 45,553.96. The Nifty 50 index slumped 432.15 points or 3.14% at 13,328.55.

Investors locked profits after the Sensex added 2.18% and the Nifty gained 2.09% in the past six consecutive sessions. The imposition of fresh lockdown restrictions in several European countries as well as growing risks of a no-deal Brexit after the deadline ends on 31 December 2020 dampened global risk appetite.

Over the weekend, the U.K. said it had identified a new strain of COVID-19 which spreads more quickly than previous variants. Following that announcement, other nations said they would be temporarily restricting travel from the U.K. in efforts to prevent the new strain from entering their borders.

India on Monday announced that it will temporarily ban flights from UK to the country after the emergence of a new and highly infectious strain of the coronavirus in Britain.

Considering the prevailing situation in the UK, Indian govt has decided that all flights originating from the UK to India shall be temporarily suspended till 11:59 pm, 31st December. This suspension to start w.e.f. 11.59 pm, 22nd December, the Ministry of Civil Aviation tweeted.

The selling was broad based. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index crashed 4.14% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 4.57%.

Sellers outnumbered buyers. On the BSE, 594 shares rose and 2,430 shares fell. A total of 168 shares were unchanged.

The US Dow Jones futures were down 288 points, indicating a weak start in US markets today.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 7,68,23,486 with 16,93,205 deaths. India reported 3,03,639 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,45,810 deaths while 96,06,111 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India

Primary Market:

The initial public offer (IPO) of Antony Waste Handling Cell received bids for 82.29 lakh shares as against 66.66 lakh shares on offer as on 21 December 2020, according to the National Stock Exchange (NSE) data at 15:00 IST. The issue was subscribed 1.23 times.

The issue opened for subscription today (21 December 2020) and closes on Wednesday (23 December 2020). The price band for the IPO is set at Rs 313-315 per share. An investor can bid for a minimum of 47 equity shares and in multiples thereof.

The issue comprises of a fresh issue worth Rs 85 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 6,824,933 equity shares by existing shareholders. Shares will list on 1 January 2021 on bourses.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty PSU Bank index slumped 7.47% to 1,635.20. The index has slumped 12% in five days.

Indian Bank (down 11.9%), Canara Bank (down 10.98%), Bank of Maharashtra (down 9.7%), J&K Bank (down 7.28%), Punjab National Bank (down 7.25%), Union Bank of India (down 7.23%), Bank of Baroda (down 7.21%) and SBI (down 6.96%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Reliance Industries (RIL) fell 2.52%. RIL and bp on Friday announced the start of production from the R Cluster, ultra-deep-water gas field in block KG-D6 off the east coast of India. RIL and bp are developing three deepwater gas projects in block KG D6 - R Cluster, Satellites Cluster and MJ - which together are expected to meet approximately 15% of India's gas demand by 2023. These projects will utilise the existing hub infrastructure in KG D6 block. RIL is the operator of KG D6 with a 66.67% participating interest and bp holds a 33.33% participating interest.

PVR slumped 7.64%. PVR said its board of directors approved the issue of equity shares of the company for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 800 crore. PVR said its board of directors approved the issue of equity shares of the company of the face value of Rs 10 each, against which American Depository Receipts (ADRs) or Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) may be issued, foreign currency convertible bonds, non-convertible debt instruments along with warrants, and/ or other securities in one or more tranches for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 800 crore.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) slipped 6.69%. The auto major said it will increase the price of its range of tractors, across models from 1 January 2021. The price hike has been necessitated due to the increase in commodity prices. Details of the price increase across different models will be communicated in due course, M&M said in a statement issued on Monday (21 December 2020).

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals fell 5.79%. The drug major received tentative ANDA approval for Dabigatran Etexilate capsules. The drug company announced that it has received tentative approval by the USFDA for Dabigatran Etexilate capsules, 75 mg, 110 mg, and 150 mg. The capsules are generic version of Pradaxa Capsules, 75 mg, 110 mg, and 150 mg, of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

AstraZeneca Pharma India fell 1.77%. The pharmaceutical major said that India's drug regulator has granted marketing authorization for benralizumab 30mg/mL solution for injection. Benralizumab (Fasenra) is indicated as an add-on maintenance treatment for severe asthma with an eosinophilic phenotype in adult patients.

Exide Industries fell 5.12%. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) bought 1.73 crore equity shares (or 2.039% stake) in Exide Industries through open market between 8 June 2017 and 17 December 2020.

Global Markets:

European markets slumped on Monday. Traders are nervously watching the new COVID-19 mutation in the U.K., which has resulted in a tough lockdown in London and other parts of southeast England. The variant is thought to be up to 70% more transmissible than the original strain of the disease. The World Health Organization said it has so far been identified in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia.

The situation could further complicate Brexit talks. Britain and the European Union remain in a deadlock over post-Brexit trade relations as a 31 December 2020 deadline looms, with disputes over issues such as fisheries plaguing negotiations.

Most Asian markets ended higher on Monday. China on Monday kept its Loan Prime Rates unchanged, in line with market expectations. The one-year and five-year LPR were kept at 3.85% and 4.65%, respectively.

In US, stocks ended lower on Friday, pulled down by uncertainty around a coronavirus stimulus deal, while Tesla shares jumped in heavy trading in anticipation of their addition to the S&P 500. Meanwhile, Moderna Inc's coronavirus vaccine on Friday became the second to receive emergency use authorization (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Key equity indices ended with small gains on Friday (18 December 2020). As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 70.35 points or 0.15% to 46,960.69. The Nifty 50 index added 19.85 points or 0.14% at 13,760.55.

After a dull start, the benchmark indices declined and hit the day's low in the morning trade. The indices traded with modest losses till the afternoon trade. Bargain hunting in the mid-afternoon session pushed the indices in the green and both the indices managed to extend their winning streak to the sixth consecutive session.

The broader market underperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.35% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index lost 0.24%.

Sellers outpaced buyers. On the BSE, 1276 shares rose and 1706 shares fell. A total of 168 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 7,49,58,938 with 16,62,228 deaths. India reported 3,13,831 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,44,789 deaths while 95,20,827 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Meanwhile, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDF) CEO Kirill Dmitriev said that Russia has been testing the first samples of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine that were produced in India. 300 million doses will be produced by India in 2021.

Buzzing Index:

Shares of IT companies were in demand after IT major Accenture Plc reported strong first-quarter results and raised business outlook for fiscal 2021.

The Nifty IT index rose 1.59% to 23,256.55. The index hit an all-time high of 23,416.50 today.

Infosys (up 2.49%), Mphasis (up 2.10%) Wipro (up 1.82%), Coforge (up 1.73%), Larsen & Toubro Infotech (up 1.58%), Mindtree (up 1.55%), HCL Technologies (up 0.98%), TCS (up 0.61%) and Tech Mahindra (up 0.33%) advanced.

Accenture reported financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2021, ended 30 November 2020, with revenues of $11.8 billion, an increase of 4% in U.S. dollars and 2% in local currency over the same period last year. Revenue growth for the quarter was reduced approximately 2 percentage points by a decline in revenues from reimbursable travel costs.

GAAP diluted earnings per share were $2.32, an 11% increase from $2.09 for the first quarter last year, including gains on an investment of $0.15 and $0.08, respectively. On an adjusted basis, EPS of $2.17 increased 8% from $2.01 for the first quarter last year.

Operating income was $1.89 billion, a 7% increase over the same period last year, and operating margin was 16.1%, an expansion of 50 basis points.

The company expects revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2021 to be in the range of $11.55 billion to $11.95 billion, 1% to 4% growth in local currency, reflecting the company's assumption of a positive 3% foreign-exchange impact compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2020. For fiscal 2021, the company expects revenue growth to be in the range of 4% to 6% in local currency, compared with 2% to 5% previously, including a reduction of approximately 1 percentage point from a decline in revenues from reimbursable travel costs.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Godrej Agrovet rose 1.22% to Rs 556.30. In a BSE filing made post market close yesterday, the company said that the Department of Horticulture, Government of Telangana, had allotted area admeasuring 28,164 hectares in the Mahabubabad district of Telangana to the company, for the purpose of oil palm cultivation/expansion.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday (17 December) announced inclusion of Aarti Industries, Dr. Lal Path Labs and HDFC Asset Management Company in the Futures & Options (F&O) segment with effect from 1 January 2021. The market lot, scheme of strikes and quantity freeze limit will be informed on 31 December 2020 through a separate circular, NSE stated.

Aarti Industries (down 0.10%), Dr. Lal Path Labs (up 1.14%) and HDFC Asset Management Company (up 0.42%) advanced.

KNR Constructions added 3.88% to Rs 330.35 after the company said its board recommended issuing one bonus shares for each share held.

Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders jumped 6.94% to Rs 221.90. The company informed that the Basin Trials (BT) of the first Ship of Project 15B (Yard 12704, Vishakhapatnam) was successfully completed at MDL, in the presence of Overseeing and Trials teams of the Indian Navy. The Ship is slated to complete sea trials by April 2021.

Isgec Heavy Engineering added 1.89% to Rs 315.15. The company has secured a new order from KPR Sugar & Apparels to set up a 10,000 TCD Sulphurless Sugar Plant, 40 MW CoGeneration Plant, 60 TPH Incineration Boiler and 7.5 MW Power Plant for Zero Liquid Discharge system for client's distillery plant on EPC basis. The order is valued at Rs 431 crore.

Borosil Renewables rose 1.74% to Rs 166.20. The company's board approved allotment of 1,58,04,030 equity shares at a price of Rs 126.55 per share, aggregating to Rs 200 crore, to the eligible qualified institutional buyers in the qualified institutions placement (QIP). The issue price is at 4.99% discount to the floor price of Rs 133.19 per equity share. The QIP issue opened December 14 and closed on December 17.

Surya Roshni advanced 3.15% to Rs 345.35. The company has bagged a Rs 72.62 crore order for supplying API 5L Grade 3LPE coated and bare pipes to Indian Oil Corporation.

Global Markets:

European shares advanced on Friday. On Thursday, the Bank of England kept its main lending rate at 0.1%, having earlier cut twice from 0.75% since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, and retained its target stock of asset purchases at £895 billion ($1.2 trillion).

Britain and the European Union struck a pessimistic tone in trade talks on Thursday, with a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying it was very likely that there would be no agreement unless the bloc changed its position substantially.

Both sides have reportedly called on the other to shift position to try to safeguard almost a trillion dollars' worth of trade from tariffs and quotas when a so-called transition period ends on 31 December 2020.

Most Asian stocks declined today. The Bank of Japan on Friday announced a six-month extension of its special program aimed at easing corporate financing pressures amid the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the yield target on the 10-year Japan government bond was set at around 0% while the short-term interest target was set to -0.1%.

The Japanese central bank also said it will conduct an assessment for further effective and sustainable monetary easing as it looks to support the economy and achieve its ever elusive inflation target, with the findings likely to be out in March.

The US stocks finished firmly positive on Thursday (17 December 2020), with the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite, the S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average all finishing near record territory after data showing a slowdown in the US labour market stoked investor bets that US Congressional leaders will clinch a $900 billion stimulus deal.

US initial jobless claims rose to 885,000 in the week ended December 12th, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level of 862,000, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. With the unexpected increase, jobless claims climbed to their highest level since hitting 893,000 in the week ended September 5th.

The lawmakers signaled progress toward an agreement on a new relief package. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., agreed that the two sides are close to an agreement but cautioned that it's not a done deal yet.

On the vaccine front, US experts were set to meet to decide whether to recommend approval of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, potentially paving the way for a second vaccine early next week after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.