Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex off day’s low, Nifty holds 15,700; banks, IT drag

Tata Consultancy Services | The IT major has expanded its strategic partnership with Royal London, the largest mutual life insurance, pensions and investment company in the UK, to help the latter transform its pensions platform estate and deliver market-leading services to members and customers.

Demand for core products rising with easing of lockdown: IIFL Finance

IIFL Finance is in focus after Abakkus and Smallcap World Fund bought stake in the company via a block deal. In another transaction, CDC Group, offloaded Rs 1.4 crore shares in IIFL Finance through open market. Nirmal Jain, Founder and Chairman at IIFL Group, spoke to CNBC-TV18. On collections, Jain said, “Collections were indeed impacted in April and May and they behaved differently for different segments. Expectedly, unsecured business loan and microfinance were impacted more in the months of April and May. In June, things improved and as we go forward, it looks like things will improve.” He added, “As businesses come on track and as most of the people get back to their businesses with easing of lockdown, we see collection efficiencies improving across all business segments.” Read here.

Most sectors at rich multiples, being selective is key: Prime Securities

NJayakumar, MD of Prime Securities, spoke to CNBC-TV18 to give his view on markets. Jayakumar said, most of the sectors are at rich multiples. So, from that perspective, we need to be very selective, going forward. He said, “Stay probably with the extremely large dominant players, which post the pandemic especially, both in terms of accessing financing plus in terms of their own business orientation that have been deleveraged, are extremely strong in their own space.” He said, “Essentially we are entering the first stage of a coordinated global reflation. Most folks in the world have seen that technology has disrupted and created jobless growth. That from a policymaker’s perspective is sought to be negated through creating jobs, infrastructure development.” More here

Shriram Properties plans to launch Rs 800 crore-IPO before end of August

Bengaluru-based Shriram Properties is likely to launch its initial public offer (IPO) before the end of August to raise up to Rs 800 crore. In April, the company filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) to raise up to Rs 800 crore through an Initial Public Offer (IPO). Earlier this month, the company got the observations from markets regulator Sebi with respect to the DRHP. According to sources, Shriram Properties plans to hit the capital market by the end of July or early August. As per the DRHP, the company proposes to raise up to Rs 800 crore through the IPO, comprising Rs 250 crore through fresh issue of equity shares and Rs 550 crore through offer for sale. More here

US dollar posts best month since November 2016; non-farm payrolls loom

The dollar rose to a 2-1/2-month peak on Wednesday, posting its biggest monthly rise since November 2016, supported by a surprisingly hawkish shift in the US Federal Reserve’s rate outlook and concern over the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant. The dollar has gained about 3 percent against a basket of currencies this month, partly in the wake of the Fed’s stance at a meeting early this month. Traders are looking to Friday’s US nonfarm payrolls report for confirmation of a shift in monetary policy. The greenback also extended gains after data showed US private payrolls increased more than expected in June by 692,000 jobs. Data for May was revised lower to show 886,000 jobs added instead of the initially reported 978,000. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private payrolls would increase by 600,000. More here

Valuations in midcap IT overheated; prefer L&T Infotech & Cyient: ICICI Securities

Sudheer Guntupalli, lead analyst-technology sector at ICICI Securities, on Thursday, said that valuations in midcap IT stocks look overheated. Speaking in an interview with CNBC-TV18, he said, “To give a sense, if one looks at market cap weighted average PE multiple of the IT midcap universe and benchmarks it against Nifty IT, looking at the broader midcap space, the valuations look overheated. So currently, the midcap universe might be trading at almost around 20-25 percent premium to the overall Nifty IT. However, looking at the last 15-20 year data, perhaps this happened only once and it did not sustain for a very long period of time.” He further added that the premium valuation in midcap IT is a result of extrapolating current growth rates and margins. More here

Vodafone Idea share price plunges over 10% after Q4 results

Shares of Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) plunged over 10 percent in early trade on Thursday after the telecom firm reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 7,022.8 crore for the March quarter amid rising concerns over its ability to service debt and pay adjusted gross revenue (AGR) & spectrum dues. The debt-ridden telecom operator had posted a net loss of Rs 4,532 crore in the December 2020 quarter. For the year ended March 31, 2021, the company’s loss narrowed to Rs 44,233.1 crore from Rs 73,878.1 crore in 2019-20. The company’s gross revenue declined 11.8 percent to Rs 9,607.6 crore as against Rs 10,894.1 crore, QoQ. More here

Market Watch: Shrikant Chouhan, Kotak Securities

– Buy LIC Housing with a stop loss of Rs 464 and a target of Rs 500.

– Buy Coal India with a stop loss of Rs 144 and a target of Rs 158.

– Buy Dabur with a stop loss of Rs 575 and a target of Rs 640.

GR Infraprojects IPO price band fixed at Rs 828-837; check other details

GR Infraprojects has fixed the price band for its upcoming IPO at Rs 828-837 per share. The IPO will open for subscription on July 7, 2021. The public issue will entirely be offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to 1.15 crore equity shares by existing promoters and shareholders, and will close on July 9, 2021. Lokesh Builders, Pradeep Kumar Agrawal, Jasamrit Premises, India Business Excellence Fund, and India Business Excellence Fund I will be offloading their shares in the OFS. According to the company’s red herring prospectus, a total of 2.25 lakh shares will be reserved for eligible employees. The registrar to the issue is KFin Technologies Private Ltd. More here

Jain Irrigation Systems soar 10% after co turns profitable in March quarter

Shares of Jain Irrigation Systems soared 10 percent on Thursday after the company turned profitable in the March quarter. The firm’s consolidated net profit came in at Rs 63.9 crore as against a loss of Rs 328.4 crore in the year-ago quarter. The stock rose a much as 9.8 percent to its day’s high of Rs 28.50 per share. The consolidated revenue rose over 19 percent YoY to Rs 1,793 crore versus Rs 1,505 crore in the same quarter last year. Consolidated EBIDTA margin increased from 1 percent to 11 percent in Q4 YoY. Meanwhile, for the full year FY21, net loss narrowed to Rs 368 crore versus Rs 700 crore in FY20. Revenue also declined in FY21 to Rs 5,666 crore from Rs 5,922 crore in FY20.

Morning market quote from V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services

“It appears that the market is in a ‘bull fatigue’ stage. Markets may consolidate in the 15600- 15900 level for some time before breaking out above 15900 or breaking down below 15600. If the market is to turn bullish again it will have to break the 15900 resistance & stay above this level for some time. For this to happen a currently underperforming sector like banking has to emerge as a leader in the next leg of the rally. In the present rally metals & IT have been the clear leaders. These two segments are likely to remain resilient but they are unlikely to move up significantly due to high valuations. So, market leadership change is imminent, and private sector banking and industrials are the likely candidates. Hyper-speculative activity in fundamentally unsound mid-small caps triggered by newbie retail investors is an area of concern”

Market Watch: Nischal Maheshwari, CEO of Institutional Equities & Advisory at Centrum Broking

On telecom stocks

We are a bit disappointed with the whole telecom industry. This sector is a hold, we are playing it through Reliance. We continue to believe Reliance has definitely got an edge over the other two players and that is what we are putting our money on.

On midcaps

IT midcap stood out very clearly. Those stocks have been on a fire – whether it is Birlasoft, Coforge, Persistent System. I see that sector continue to do well as we go ahead.

Opening Bell: Sensex opens with mild gains, Nifty around 15,750; metals gain, IT drags

Indian indices opened mildly higher on Thursday boosted by metals, auto and financials, however, losses in IT stocks capped some gains. At 9:18 am, the Sensex was up 68 points at 52,550 while the Nifty rose 26 points to 15,648. On the Nifty50 index, M&M, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, JSW Steel and Tata Motors are the top gainers while Infosys, Britannia, IndusInd Bank, Coal India and Wipro led the losses. Broader markets were mixed in early deals with the midcap index down 0.3 percent and smallcap index up 0.4 percent.

More steam left in mid, smallcap; high valuations seem distorted by loss pools

The broader markets, small and midcap indices have significantly outperformed the benchmark Nifty50 since December 2019 despite the economy going through a technical recession. This has fuelled fears with regards to their exorbitant valuations and high price-earnings (P/E) levels. However, certain analysts believe that the valuation discount of smallcaps and midcaps to their largecap peers has dipped but not disappeared, while what is visible, is a significant loss pool distorting the picture. More here

Petrol, diesel prices kept unchanged for second day in a row

The oil marketing companies (OMCs) kept fuel prices unchanged for the second consecutive day on Thursday. Accordingly, the price of petrol and diesel was static at Rs 98.81 and Rs 89.18 per litre in the national capital, as per Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s largest fuel retailer. In Mumbai, the petrol price was unchanged at Rs 104.90 per litre on Thursday. The cost of diesel was stable at Rs 96.72 a litre.

Oil drifts sideways ahead of OPEC+ meeting

Oil prices traded sideways on Thursday as investors waited for a decision from key producers on whether they would maintain or ease supply cuts in the second half of the year. Brent crude for September edged up 1 cent to USD 74.63 a barrel by 00:48 GMT while the US West Texas Intermediate crude for August was at USD 73.46 a barrel, down 1 cent but near its highest since 2018 of USD 74.45. WTI rose more than 10 percent in June while Brent added over 8 percent, touching highs since 2018, as summer travel picked up and more people got vaccinated. But renewed lockdowns in Asia amid the spread of a highly contagious COVID-19 variant capped demand. More here

SEBI gives more time to brokers, clearing members to comply with rules

Markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday extended deadlines for complying with certain regulatory requirements by stock brokers, clearing members and KYC registration agencies in view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The deadline for maintaining call recordings of orders or instructions received from clients has been extended by one month till July 31, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular. Also, the regulator has given time till July-end to brokers for operating the trading terminals from designated alternate locations. Further, the deadline has been extended till July-end for submission of client funding report. More here

Investors’ wealth soars Rs 25.46 lakh crore so far this fiscal

Equity investors have grown richer by a whopping Rs 25,46,954.71 crore in the first three months of the current fiscal, driven by upbeat market sentiment. The 30-share BSE Sensex has zoomed 2,973.56 points or 6 percent so far this fiscal. The BSE benchmark index reached its all-time high of 53,126.73 on June 28. It registered its record closing of 52,925.04 on June 25. Mirroring the optimistic sentiment, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies reached its lifetime peak of Rs 2,31,58,316.92 crore on June 15 this year. More here