Sensex jumps 316 points reclaims 50,000 mark

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Indian benchmark indices opened higher for the second straight day on the back of firm global cues, GST collection surpassing the Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for the fifth consecutive month, touching Rs 1.13 lakh crore for the month of February.

In opening trades, Sensex jumps 316 points to 50,166 while the broader market index Nifty50 opened at 14,865 up 103 points.

Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, M&M, HDFC Bank and Infosys were top gainer on the Sensex. On the downside, ONGC lost over 2.56%, followed by Powergrid losing 0.86%, Bajaj Auto & HDFC down around 0.60% & ITC was trading lower by 0.17% in morning trades.

Sectorally all indices were trading in green with Nifty IT leading the pack with gains of over 1.59%. Nifty Bank was up about a per cent. While Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG & Nifty Pharma opened with gains of anywhere between 0.25-0.50%.

The volatility index India VIX cooled off further by 3.6% to 24.69 levels.

Bulls have an upper hand as 1,391 shares advanced compared to a decline of 339 shares and 486 shares remained unchanged on the NSE.

The broader market outperformed benchmark indices as BSE MidCap was up 1.09% and BSE SmallCap rose 1.16%.

Stocks in spotlight

Hero MotoCorp sold 505,467 units of motorcycles and scooters in February 2021. The company had dispatched 498,242 units of two-wheelers during the corresponding month of the previous year (February 2020).

Eicher Motors said its total motorcycle sales rose to 69,659 units in February 2021 from 63,536 units in February 2020.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) said that its Board of Directors approved the proposal for sale of entire equity shares i.e. 45,35,45,998 equity shares of Rs 10/-each held by BPCL in Numaligarh Refinery (NRL) (constituting 61 .65% of the total equity capital of NRL), a material subsidiary company of BPCL to a consortium of Oil India and Engineers India, (consortium); and to Govt. of Assam, or only to the said consortium in case Govt. of Assam does not participate in purchase of said shares, in such proportion and on such terms and conditions as approved by the Board. Total consideration would be Rs. 9875.96 crore.

UPL announced a long-term strategic collaboration with FMC Corporation, a leading global agricultural sciences company. As per the agreement, UPL will toll manufacture and supply Rynaxypyr to FMC in India, and FMC will supply the active ingredient to UPL depending on the markets.

IRCTC said that Railway Ministry has directed the company to terminate all existing contracts of mobile catering (currently kept in abeyance) involving scope of work of providing cooked food to passengers prepared from base kitchens as per the existing terms and conditions.

Camlin Fine Sciences said that MPCB has issued restart directions with respect to the company’s manufacturing unit at Tarapur, District Palghar, Maharashtra subject to the company fulfilling certain terms and conditions. The manufacturing unit shall now be functional from 2nd March 2021.

Global markets

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading higher on Tuesday following strong gains overnight for shares on Wall Street.

U.S. stocks jumped sharply on Monday in a broad-based rally as stocks tied to the economic reopening jumped on vaccine optimism, while tech names rebounded from steep losses last week.

U.S. manufacturing activity increased to a three-year high in February amid a surge in new orders. The ISM said its index of national factory activity rebounded to a reading of 60.8 last month from 58.7 in January. That was the highest level since February 2018.