After opening the day on a positive note, Indian share markets continued their momentum as the session progressed and ended higher.

Benchmark indices closed in the green today as the Reserve Bank of India delivered a smaller interest rate hike as widely expected, while Adani Group shares recouped losses for a second straight day.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 378 points (up 0.6%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 150 points (up 0.9%).

Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, and HDFC Life Insurance were among the top gainers today.

Power Grid Corporation, Coal India, and L&T on the other hand were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 17,876, up by 146 points, at the time of writing.

Broader markets settled on a firm note. The BSE Midcap ended 1% higher while the BSE SmallCap index rose 0.8%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the healthcare sector, IT sector, and metal sector witnessing buying.

While stocks in the telecom sector, and capital goods sector witnessed selling.

Shares of M&M Financial services, and Jindal Saw hit their 52-week highs today.

Asian share markets ended the day on a mixed note. The Hang Seng fell 0.1%, while the Shanghai Composite index ended 0.5% lower. The Nikkei ended today at 0.3% lower.

US stock futures are trading on a negative note. Dow futures are trading down by 0.2% and Nasdaq futures are trading down by 0.3%.

The rupee is trading at 82.52 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading flat at Rs 57,270 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.3% at Rs 67,696 per kg.

Speaking of stock markets, for equity investors who were hopeful that in 2023, the Sensex would resume its bull run, unfortunately, the new year has not got off to a good start.

The war in Ukraine has got only worse, recession fears have emerged stronger, layoffs are happening at an alarming pace and now the Adani group fiasco has wiped off trillions of rupees in market capitalization for investors.

In such a scenario, particularly after the recent sell-off in Adani group stocks, it's best to avoid high PE stocks and instead look at stocks using the price/earnings to growth ratio (PEG).
 

Why Adani group stocks are rising

Most of the Adani group stocks rose today.

With positive news flow dominating the conversation around Adani Group, the conglomerate's stocks on Wednesday extended their rebound to the second straight session to rally up to 18%.

Nine out of ten stocks of Adani group rose today, with flagship Adani Enterprises gaining as much as 15%.

Adani Wilmar was locked in the 5% upper circuit. Shares of Adani Transmission, Adani Power, and NDTV rallied up to 5% today.

While shares of Adani port and SEZ, which reported a 16% YoY decline in consolidated profit at Rs 13.2 billion (bn), rose around 6% today.

On the other hand, the share price of Adani Green and Adani Total Gas were the only two stocks under pressure.

This rally was on the back of the promoter group's announcement of prepaying the US$ 1.1 bn debt ahead of its September 2024 maturity in three key companies, Adani Green Energy, Adani Ports, and Adani Transmission.

Sentiment also got a boost after two other firms of the ports-to-power conglomerate reported strong profit growth in earnings released on Tuesday.
 

TCS bags US$ 700 million deal

Moving on to news from the IT sector, shares of TCS gained 1.7% today.

The gains were on the back of TCS signing a big deal. The Tata group company on 8 February 2023 announced the expansion of its partnership with existing United Kingdom-based client Phoenix Group in a £600 million (m) (US$ 723 m) deal.

This is its biggest deal win in the financial year 2023.

This is also the biggest banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) products and platform deal for TCS in the past three years.

Phoenix Group is the largest long-term savings and retirement provider in the UK.

As part of the deal, TCS will digitally transform Phoenix's ReAssure business, including its administration services, using the BaNCS-based platform.

Also, TCS's Diligenta will manage customer administration and servicing of ReAssure's 3 m policies.

The company will also leverage its Innovation Lab in the UK, where its contextual experts and solution architects will look for new ways of harnessing digital technologies.

The company dominates the information technology industry in India. It is the second-largest IT company globally.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has remained an investor's favorite stock.

This is because it has created phenomenal wealth for its shareholders since listing in 2004 and has always been among the most admired companies in India.

If you had invested Rs 1 lakh in TCS shares at the issue price of Rs 850 in the IPO in 2004, the value of that investment today would be around Rs 3,176,000, a return of almost 3,000%.

Shree Cements declares interim dividend

Moving on to the news from the cement sector, shares of Shree Cement were in focus today.

Shree Cement today reported a 43.7% YoY fall in profits to Rs 2.8 bn for December 2022 quarter.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 4.9 bn in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

It missed the market expectations, as persistently high input and fuel costs triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war weighed on the cement sector.

However, its revenue from operation grew 15% YoY at Rs 40.7 bn during the December 2022 quarter compared to Rs 35.5 bn in the year-ago period.

The board of directors of the company also declared an interim dividend of Rs 45 per share (450%) for the year 2022-23.

Total expenses rose 26.8% YoY to Rs38.5 bn amid a surge in global oil prices.

Even though prices of key fuel components such as petroleum coke and coal slightly cooled-off in the third quarter, prices remained elevated.

Power and fuel costs, which account for a major part of the cement maker's expenses, jumped 61.3%YoY to 13 bn, driving the profit lower.

A rise in input costs and high travel costs are expected to keep cement stocks at bay. 

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