Sensex Ends 86 Points Higher As Midcap & Smallcap Stocks Outperform; Nifty Ends Above 12,700

After opening the day lower, Indian share markets witnessed buying interest during the last hour of trading and ended on a positive note.

Benchmark indices witnessed volatility amid weak global cues as rising pandemic cases in major countries dampened investor sentiment.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 86 points. The NSE Nifty stood higher by 29 points.

Bajaj Finserv and Tata Steel were among the top gainers today. L&T, on the other hand, was among the top losers today.

SGX Nifty was trading at 12,758, up by 52 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended up by 0.9%. The BSE Small Cap index ended higher by 1.1%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the metal sector and realty sector witnessing buying interest.

Asian stock markets ended on a negative note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Shanghai Composite stood lower by 0.9% and the Nikkei ended down by 0.5%.

US stock futures are trading higher today, indicating a positive start for Wall Street indices.

Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 107 points (up 1%), while Dow Futures are trading up by 219 points (up 0.8%).

The rupee is trading at 74.70 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.1% at Rs 50,637 per 10 grams.

In news from the realty sector, shares of Indiabulls Real Estate surged as much as 16% today, rallying 32% in the past two days after Rare Enterprises acquired 5 million shares of the real estate company via open market on Thursday.

On November 12, 2020, Rare Enterprises, owned by ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, purchased 5 million equity shares, or 1.1% equity stake in Indiabulls Real Estate via an open market transaction.

Rare Enterprises bought shares worth Rs 288.6 million at a price of Rs 57.73 per share, bulk deals data available on the NSE showed.

On the other hand, Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte - ODI sold 7.6 million shares at Rs 57.16 per share.

Indiabulls Real Estate share price ended the day up by 9.1%.

Moving on to news from the defense sector, Bharat Dynamics and Cochin Shipyard were among the top buzzing stocks today.

Bharat Dynamics' standalone net profit tanked 75.3% to Rs 262.5 million on a 62.6% slump in net sales to Rs 2,400.3 million in Q2 September 2020.

The company said its operations returned to near normalcy after lockdowns and restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The movement restrictions of men and materials are slowly easing up through supply chain disruptions remain to some extent impacting the company's production.

The company added that its liquidity position is comfortable and there has been no structural impairment to any of its fixed and other assets.

Meanwhile, Cochin Shipyard on Thursday reported a 47.7% decline in its net profit at Rs 1,083.6 million for Q2FY21.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2,075.7 million in the same quarter last year.

Cochin Shipyard, the country's largest commercial shipbuilder, said its revenue from operations fell 32.4% to Rs 6,574 million in the quarter under review as compared with Rs 9,728.6 million in the same quarter of last fiscal.

The Chennai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had on March 4 approved the resolution plan submitted by Cochin Shipyard for the acquisition of Tebma Shipyards (TSL) which was undergoing insolvency proceedings.

In compliance with the NCLT order, Cochin Shipyard said it paid the bid amount for the takeover of TSL on September 15, with effect from which TSL has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company.

In a separate statement, the shipbuilder said it launched five vessels at one go from its building dock at Kochi and also laid the keel for two vessels.

The vessels launched are two 8000 DWT mini general cargo ships for JSW Shipping & Logistics and three Floating Border Outpost Vessels (FBOP) for the Indian Border Security Force.

The company said it is also augmenting its infrastructure in Kochi and is currently investing around Rs 28 billion in the construction of a new dry dock and a ship lift based ship repair yard at Willingdon Island, Kochi.

Cochin Shipyard share price ended the day up by 0.2%.

Speaking of the defense sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the top 5 military spending countries in the world as of 2019: