The NSE Nifty on Tuesday sailed past the 11,000 mark, while the BSE Sensex breached the 36,000 level for the first time after an IMF report showed India was set to regain the title as the world's fastest growing major economy in 2018-19. The sentiments also remained upbeat on strong global cues.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex closed higher by 342 points and the NSE Nifty finished higher by 118 points. The S&P BSE Mid Cap finished up by 1.2% while S&P BSE Small Cap finished up by 0.2%. Gains were largely seen in metal stocks, PSU stocks and energy stocks.
Asian stock markets closed sharply higher today with shares in Hong Kong leading the region. The Hang Seng is up 1.66% while Japan's Nikkei 225 is up 1.29% and China's Shanghai Composite is up 1.29%. European markets are higher today with shares in Germany leading the region. The DAX is up 0.83% while London's FTSE 100 is up 0.20% and France's CAC 40 is up 0.14%.
Rupee was trading at Rs 63.77 against the US$ in the afternoon session.
Oil prices were trading at US$ 64.03 at the time of writing.
ONGC share price continued to trade on a strong note in today's trade and finished up by 3.7% after the company got approval from the government for selling its stake in IOC and GAIL to help fund the Rs 36,915 crore acquisition of HPCL.
As per the reports, ONGC holds 13.77% stake in nation's biggest refiner IOC, which at today's trading price is worth over Rs 262 billion. It also holds 4.86% stake in gas utility GAIL India Ltd, which is worth over Rs 38.47 billion.
ONGC acquiring HPCL would create India's first integrated oil company. This would be ONGC's biggest acquisition and second buyout this fiscal after its Rs 77.38 billion acquisition of 80% in Gujarat State Petroleum Corp's KG basin gas block.
Ashok Leyland share price rallied 2.3% in today's trade. As per an article in The Economic Times, the company is aiming to increase its export basket of light commercial vehicles (LCV) to 25% from the present 5% the next three years.
Ashok Leyland will also be investing Rs 4 billion into a new platform of LCVs that will continue to launch new product every six months.
Moving on to news from steel sector. Tata Steel share price finished up by 3.8% in today's trade. The surge came after the company's CEO announced that the steel major is ready for expansion through both capex and acquisitions.
The company's board has already approved a plan to expand the capacity of its Kalinganagar facility by up to 5 million tonnes. The facility currently produces 3 mt of steel a year.
In addition, Tata Steel has submitted bids for at least three stressed steelmakers: Bhushan Steel Ltd, Electrosteel Steels Ltd and Essar Steel India Ltd.
Meanwhile, Rallis India share price plunged 6.7% in today's trade after the company posted a marginal drop in consolidated net profit at Rs 249.4 million for the December quarter. The company clocked a net profit of Rs 253.4 million in the same quarter last financial year.
In another development, Havells India share price surged 5.8% as reported a stand-alone net profit of Rs 1.94 billion for the quarter ended in December 2017, compared to a profit of Rs 1.52 billion a year ago.
Total income during the quarter under review stood at Rs 19.93 billion versus Rs 16.50 billion in the year-ago period. The company said the results are not comparable with previous period as it had acquired consumer durable business of LEEL Electricals Ltd in May last year.
Moving on to news from banking sector. Axis bank share price continued to surge in today's trade as well and finished up by 1.1% on the BSE as the company as the bank provided lower provisions against its bad loans.
Axis bank reported a 25.3% increase in its profit to Rs 7.26 billion for the quarter ended 31 December from Rs 5.79 billion a year ago. Provisions and contingencies fell 26% to Rs 28.11 billion from Rs 37.95 billion a year ago.
Net NPAs were at 2.56% in the December quarter compared to 3.12% in the previous quarter and 2.18% in the same quarter last year. Its total loan amount outstanding against IBC accounts and watchlist stood at Rs 60.74 billion and Rs 53.09 billion, down 14% and 12%, respectively, from its previous quarter.
In another development, Credit-deposit ratio, a.k.a. CD Ratio has been steadily increasing over the past one year. This ratio shows how much a bank lends out of the deposits it has mobilized. This ratio was below 70% in November 2016, when demonetization resulted in a flood of deposits while lending slowed down.
CD Ratio and Bank Credit Growth Rising Upwards
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Deposit growth and bank credit growth impacts the CD ratio. Bank credit growth rate is continuously improving and achieved 9.6% growth in November 2017. Although the base effect may have played a part in making, the current growth numbers look better. Nevertheless, the rise in bank credit growth will be positive for India's banking sector facing lower loan demand and severe capital constraints.
And here's a note from Profit Hunter:
The Indian indices crosses another landmark. The Nifty 50 index (+115 points) breached the 11,000 mark and S&P BSE Sensex (+340 points) is trading above 36,000. All the sectoral indices are trading in the green.
Many stocks have touched their life-time highs in today's session. But the one stock we've been tracking for a long time now witnessed a solid buying interest - Cyient Ltd.
It is up 5% with healthy volumes.
Cyient Ltd is trending higher, along with the Nifty IT index, after bottoming out in February 2013. The stock mostly traded sideways in a range of 450-550 between November 2014 till November 2017 (except for a brief drop to 370 in February 2016).
The day before yesterday, the company announced its Q3-FY18 results and the stock soared 14% in a day to achieve a new life-time high. Today, the stock is up 5%, another life-time high of 686.
Our Profit Hunter Pro subscribers booked more than 20% gain on Cyient Ltd in about two and half months based on our recommendation. We have also posted our latest view on the stock based on the fundamental and technical in Profit Hunter Pro's latest issue.
You can read about it here (subscription required).
Cyient at a New Life-time High
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