Indian share markets witnessed positive trading activity throughout the day today and ended higher, lifted by IT stocks.
IT stocks rallied after Accenture came out with better-than-expected quarterly numbers. The company reported an adjusted third-quarter profit of US$ 1.90 a share, which beat the US$ 1.85 average estimate of 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Reacting to the above news, most of the IT stocks rallied and ended in the green. The BSE IT index surged over 5% intraday.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 329 points (up 0.9%).
The NSE Nifty closed higher by 94 points (up 0.9%).
Gains were largely seen in the IT sector and the oil & gas sector.
FMCG stocks, on the other hand, witnessed selling pressure.
The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day up by 0.3%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended up by 0.2%.
SGX Nifty was trading at 10,325, up by 90 points, at the time of writing.
Asian stock markets followed Wall Street indices and ended higher after US regulators removed some limits on banks' ability to make investments.
Wall Street closed higher after the Federal Reserve and other regulators announced they will ease rules that limit banks' ability to invest in hedge funds and some other areas.
As of the most recent closing prices, the Nikkei stood higher by 1.1%, while Hang Seng lost 0.9%.
Gold prices are trading up by 0.2% at Rs 48,052, per 10 grams.
The rupee is trading at 75.65 against the US$.
Moving on, Aarti Drugs was among the top buzzing stocks today.
Shares of Aarti Drugs rallied 10% intraday today to hit a new all-time high of Rs 1,299.50, on an expectation of good growth from its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient and formulation business.
In the past three months, the stock of the company has zoomed about 160%.
In news from the travel support services sector, shares of state-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) declined over 5% today after Indian Railways cancelled all regular trains, barring the special Rajdhani and mail express trains, till August 12.
Earlier, the Railways had cancelled all passenger train tickets booked till June 30.
In a statement, the Railway Board said, "it has been decided that regular time-tabled passenger services including Mail/Express, passenger and suburban services stand cancelled up to 12.08.2020. All tickets booked for the regular timetabled trains for journey date from 01.07.20 to 12.08.20 also stand cancelled. A full refund will be generated."
Indian Railways had resumed passenger train services with around 15 pairs of trains from 12 May 2020. After Unlock 1.0, the national transporter is now running another 200 special trains since June 1.
IRCTC is also scheduled to announce its March quarter results (Q4FY20) later today.
IRCTC share price ended the day down by 2.6%.
Massive Reforms Underway in the Indian Railways
The government's aim to modernize more than 100 stations to world-class standards and by provide amenities like wi-fi, quality food and beverage services will improve the passenger experience.
Improved services will also help the government justify fare increases in the future.
Tanushree believes such reforms are the need of the hour for the Indian economy.
Moving on, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the government is discussing with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for loan restructuring of companies which are stressed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at a webinar organized by the Chennai International Centre (CIC), Sitharaman said that discussions are on with the RBI on the matter of one-time restructuring of loans.
She also said that discussions are on with the RBI and the banks as to why the interest rate reductions are not passed on to the customers.
According to her, the reasons for banks not fully passing on the benefit of interest rate reductions are not convincing.
Sitharaman said the government will also consider providing an emergency line of credit to individual owners of businesses while a decision on the suggestion to offer collateral-free credit based on pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) bills will be deliberated upon.
She also urged the Indian industries to introspect on how businesses are run and on how the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' mission could be realized to its full potential.
Pointing out the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for example, Sitharaman said that India is a big market and they should be manufactured in the country without depending on one or two countries.
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