Sensex climbs 260 points at open, Nifty above 15,750; RIL AGM in focus

• Follow

Benchmark equity indices opened in the green on Thursday tracking positive trend in global equities. At 9:43am, Sensex was at 52,569.01, up 262.93 points or 0.50%, while Nifty50 rose 70.40 points or 0.45% to 15,757.35. Market participants would closely track the 44^th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries (RIL) that scheduled to start at 2 p.m.

The session may turn volatile as traders are expected to roll over positions in the F&O segment from the near month June series to July series. The June 2021 F&O contracts will expire today, 24 June 2021.

Infosys, up over 1%, was the top Sensex gainer followed by TCS, L&T, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.  PowerGrid, Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints, M&M and NTPC were among the laggards.

All sectoral indices on NSE were in the green. Nifty IT, up nearly 1%, led the sectoral pack followed by Nifty Bank and Nifty metal, up about 0.7% each.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap index was trading flat at 22,439 up 0.02%  while the BSE SmallCap index rose 0.28% regaining the 25,000-mark at 25,022. Market breadth favoured the bulls with 1,254 stocks advanced and 490 shares declined while 470 scrips remained unchanged.

New listing

The shares of Shyam Metalics and Sona Comstar are slated to list on the bourses on Thursday. A strong debut is on the cards for Shyam Metalics while Sona Comstar is likely to witness a muted listing, suggest grey market trends.

Earnings today

ONGC, Ashok Leyland, Allied Computers International, Bodal Chemicals, CL Educate, Deep Industries, Everest Kanto Cylinder, Essar Shipping, Future Supply Chain Solutions, Mishra Dhatu Nigam, Mudra Financial Services, PTC India, South India Paper Mills, Sundaram Multi Pap, Take Solutions, Thangamayil Jewellery, West Coast Paper Mills and others will be reporting their quarterly earnings today.

Stocks in spotlight

Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) will be in focus. RIL will conduct its 44th AGM virtually today, 24 June 2021, at 14:00 IST. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate may reportedly make announcements across its telecom, retail and O2C businesses.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise on Wednesday announced the creation of India’s largest omnichannel healthcare platform called ‘Apollo HealthCo’ by merging its online and offline pharmacies and telemedicine businesses through a slump sale.

Piramal Enterprises said the board of directors of the company will be held on Monday, 28th June 2021, to consider and approve the issue of Secured, Rated, Listed Redeemable Principal Protected Market Linked Non-Convertible Debentures up to Rs. 100 crores along with an option to retain oversubscription up to Rs. 900 crores, the total size aggregating up to Rs. 1,000 crores on a private placement basis.

Orchid Pharma said that promoter Dhanuka Laboratories proposed to sell 32,80,115 equity shares, representing 8.04% of total paid-up equity via offer for sale, on June 24 and June 25. The floor price for the sale is Rs 375 per share.

UCO Bank said the board of directors of the bank approved the proposal for raising Tier II capital up to Rs.500 crore.

Angel Broking, which crossed the 5-million customer base mark in May onboarding a record 0.43 million new demat accounts during the month, has said that over 80% of its new customers are under 30 years of age, and 90% of them are from small towns.

Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) reported a 49.48% decline in net profit at Rs 157.28 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. It had clocked a profit of Rs 311.38 crore in the year-ago period.The oil-to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries will hold its 44th Annual General Meeting on June 24.

Tata Motors on Wednesday said Guenter Butschek will step down as its MD and CEO with effect from June 30. He will, however, continue as a consultant to the company till the end of this fiscal year.

Global markets

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading mostly steady Thursday after U.S. shares moved in narrow ranges as traders digested commentary from Federal Reserve officials on the outlook for stimulus.

In the US, the S&P 500 erased modest gains earlier and closed in the red on Wednesday as the market’s comeback rally took a breather. The Nasdaq hovered near its all-time high on Wednesday.

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan, who’s pencilled in a rate hike next year, said the economy will likely meet the Fed’s threshold for tapering asset purchases sooner than people think. His Atlanta counterpart Raphael Bostic said the central bank could decide to slow such purchases in the next few months. Neither are currently voting members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee.

A measure of U.S. factory activity climbed to a record high in June. Data firm IHS Markit said on Wednesday its flash U.S. manufacturing PMI rose to a reading of 62.6 this month. That was the highest since the survey was expanded to cover all manufacturing industries in October 2009 and followed a final reading of 62.1 in May.

The U.S. current account deficit increased to a 14-year high in the first quarter. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday the current account deficit, which measures the flow of goods, services and investments into and out of the country, rose 11.8% to $195.7 billion last quarter. That was the largest shortfall since the first quarter of 2007.