Buying towards the fag end lifted the otherwise lackluster benchmark indices to shut with modest gains. The index heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and Infosys led from the front.
However, the breadth on the BSE Sensex was negative for second day, out of the total 2918 stocks, 1774 declined as against 1065 advances and 79 remained unchanged. Among the 30-components of Sensex, 15 stocks ended in the negative and 15 ended in the green.
The BSE Sensex advanced 70 points to end at 17,168 after touching a high of 17,215 and a low of 17,054. The NSE Nifty gained 17 points to end at 5,133.
Investors seem to be upbeat on the Initial public offerings rather than the FPOs as scintillating debut for IPOs continue. The most recent ones namely Texmo pipes, Jubilant Foodworks, Infinite Solutions and Cox & Kings were among the major outperformers.
Man Infraconstruction, which turned out to be the most successful IPO so far this year, debuted with dazzling gains on the Indian bourses today. The stock shot up to Rs348 as against its issue price of Rs252 per share translating in to premium of 38%. The IPO was subscribed 62.33 times. The issue received total bids for over 290mn shares against 465.3mn shares on offer at the end of the IPO. It generated a demand for ~Rs73.08bn worth of shares instead of the Rs1.42bn.
Among the 30-components of Sensex, 15 stocks ended in the negative and 15 ended in the green.
In Asia, the Nikkei in Japan ended in the green, adding 1%, while Australia's S&P/ASX ended flat. Shanghai SE Composite ended flat and Hang Seng index in Hong Kong edged higher by 0.2%.
In Europe, stocks were in negative terrain. The DAX in Germany, the CAC 40 index in France and the FTSE in the UK all were flat.
Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the IT index was the top gainer, adding 1%, followed by the Teck index that was up 1% and the BSE Bank index was up 0.7%.
Among the losers were BSE Auto index down 1% and BSE FMCG index down 0.8%. Even, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.2% and BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.2%.
Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were Shriram Transport, Sintex Ind, Exide Ind and Jain Irrigation. On the other hand, losers included NMDC, Hindustan Copper, India Cements and Gujarat NRE Coke.
Shares of Thermax have further advanced by 1.5% to end at Rs683 after the company yesterday announced that it has formed a strategic joint venture with Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W PGG), to engineer, manufacture and supply supercritical boilers for the Indian power sector. The Joint venture will also manufacture subcritical boilers over 300 megawatts (MW) in size. The agreement was signed by M S Unnikrishnan, Managing Director and CEO, Thermax, and Richard L. Killion, President and Chief Operating Officer, B&W PGG.
Crompton Greaves won order worth Rs3.02bn to construct a substation in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The contract was signed on March 5, the company said. The stock ended lower by 1% to Rs242. The scrip opened at Rs244 it touched an intra-day high of Rs246 and a low of Rs240 and recorded volumes of over 0.23mn shares on BSE.
AstraZeneca plc announced a license and supply agreement with Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd. As per the deal, AstraZeneca would initially buy from Torrent the licenses and market authorizations for 18 products in 9 countries and the agreement allows the flexibility to add further products and new countries where AstraZeneca sees opportunities for growth.
Shares of Torrent Pharma gained by 3% to end at Rs490. The scrip opened at Rs476 it touched an intra-day high of Rs501 and a low of Rs476 and recorded volumes of over 81,000 shares on BSE.
Areva T&D won Rs4bn contract in India by state utility Uttar Pradesh Power Transmission Corpo- AREVA ration Ltd (UPPTCL). AREVA will build a 765 kV Extra High-Voltage (EHV) substation at the Anpara "D" thermal power plant1 in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
The stock gained 2% to Rs279. It opened at Rs275 it touched an intra-day high of Rs281 and a low of Rs273 and has recorded volumes of over 0.21mn shares on BSE.
Fortis Healthcare hit news 52-week high to end at 178 advancing 5% after the company announced that through one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 23.9% strategic stake in one of the Asia's largest healthcare service provider, Parkway Holdings Ltd. from TPG Capital (formerly Texas Pacific Group) in an off market deal.
McNally Bharat received an order worth Rs243.8mn for Design, Engineering, Supply of Equipment, Civil Work, Structural Work, Erection & Commissioning of flood lighting along Indo- Bangladesh Border in the State of Tripura (Package Nos. Panifl- IV, Gokulfl- I, Gokulfl- II & Gokulfl IV) for national projects construction corporation ltd. The contractual period of completion is within 11 months.
The stock ended higher by 1.5% to end at Rs280. The scrip opened at Rs270 it touched an intra-day high of Rs284 and a low of Rs270 and recorded volumes of over 0.14mn shares on BSE.