Sensex jumps 282 points; Nifty tops 14,750

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Benchmark Indian equity indices opened in the green on Monday led by sluggish US data cools down inflation concerns, also fall in Covid cases further aided investor’s sentiment. In opening trades Sensex jumped 282 points or 0.58% at 49,015 whereas the broader market index Nifty 50 was trading at 14,758 up 80 points or 0.55%.

ITC, SBI, HDFC, ICICI Bank and Infosys were the top gainers on the Sensex gaining in the range 1-1.6%. Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Titan and M&M were the laggards on the Sensex.

“There are two macro numbers that will exert a big influence on the markets. Externally US inflation numbers and internally India’s Covid data. The jury is still out on US inflation with Fed claiming that the spike in inflation in April is transitory and many economists & market experts believing that inflation will continue to rise to force the Fed to taper earlier than expected. We will have to wait to see how the inflation scenario play out. The other number, India’s Covid data, indicates steady improvement with fresh cases steadily declining and the latest number at 2.81lakhs is indeed very positive. And, the recovery numbers at 3.78 lakhs indicate a steady decline in the total caseload. This means the present increasing lockdowns will be a temporary phase that is likely to be ignored by the market. The market is likely to ignore the worse-than-expected Q1 FY22 GDP and earning numbers since a turnaround looks imminent in the subsequent quarters,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Sectorally, Nifty Metal & Nifty Pharma lost 0.53% and 0.36% respectively. Nifty Bank gained over 1%, while Nifty IT and Nifty FMCG  around 0.30% and Nifty Auto was marginally up 0.05%.

In the broader markets, BSE MidCap & BSE SmallCap mirrored the gains of benchmark indices and were up 0.45% and 0.69% respectively. Market breadth favoured the bulls as 1,242 shares advanced versus 559 stocks declined and 488 scrips remained unchanged.

Earnings today:

Colgate-Palmolive (India), Gland Pharma, The Federal Bank, Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals, Sun Pharma Advanced Research, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Orient Cement,  3I Infotech, Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances, Shakti Pumps (India), Rane Brake Lining, Prakash Pipes amongst others will be declaring their quarterly results today.

Stocks in spotlight:

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) reported a 3% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,293 crore on a 9% increase in revenues to Rs 48,088 crore in Q4 FY21 over Q4 FY20.

The company’s revenues registered a sequential growth of 35%, as execution activities normalized on easing of COVID-19 restrictions, before the onset of the 2nd wave of the pandemic.

The order inflow for the quarter January-March 2021 at Rs 50,651 crore, lower by 12% over the corresponding period of the previous year with the deferment of awards. International orders at Rs 18,439 crore during the quarter is at 36% of the total order inflow, with receipt of the biggest Solar PV plant order and transmission line orders.

Cipla reported a 68% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 413 crore on a 5% increase in total revenue from operations to Rs 4606 crore in Q4 FY21 over Q4 FY20.

Hero MotoCorp is gearing up towards a gradual resumption of operations by starting single shift production at three of its plants – Gurugram and Dharuhera in Haryana and Haridwar in the northern hill state of Uttarakhand – from Monday, May 17. In addition to producing for the domestic market in India, these plants will also have an enhanced focus on catering to the Global Business (GB) markets across the world.

Zensar Technologies Inc, USA, wholly-owned subsidiary of Zensar Technologies, has entered into a definitive agreement(s)/document(s) for the acquisition of 100% of the membership interests in M3bi, LLC, USA.

Shalby announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire certain assets from Consensus Orthopedics, a company headquartered in El Dorado Hills, Sacramento, California for a cash consideration of USD 11.45 million.

Kirloskar Industries said that considering the gravity of the threat posed by COVID 19 and in compliance with the directives issued by the State Government, the company’s offices will remain closed from 16 May 2021 till 1 June 2021 and all employees of the company will manage work from home.

Global markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading mixed on Monday as investors reacted to the release of Chinese economic data.

China’s industrial output grew 9.8% in April from a year ago, slower than the 14.1% surge in March, official data showed on Monday. Retail sales rose 17.7% year-on-year in April, much weaker than a 24.9% uptick expected by analysts and down from the 34.2% jump seen in March.

Wall Street closed higher in a broad rally as signs of a rebounding economy squared off against mounting inflation jitters.