After opening the day lower, benchmark indices turned negative on Friday and ended the day lower.

Equity markets settled in the negative zone on Friday, weighed largely by HDFC Bank, Titan Company, Tata Steel, and M&M.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 53 points (down 0.1%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 22 points (up 0.1%).

ONGC, SBI, and HUL are among the top gainers today.

HDFC Bank, Titan, and M&M on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The GIFT Nifty was trading at 24,415, up by 29 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE MidCap index and BSE SmallCap index ended 0.7% higher.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed, with stocks in the power sector and energy sector witnessing the most buying. Meanwhile, stocks in the banking sector and finance sector witnessed selling pressure.

Shares of Siemens, Thermax, and Trent hit their respective 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 83.5 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading 0.2% higher at Rs 72,514 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices were trading 0.4% higher at Rs 92,355 per 1 kg.
 

SAIL Jumps 3% Today. Here's Why.

In news from the steel sector, shares of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) rose as much as 3% on 5 July on the report of the steel union proposing a mega public sector undertaking by merging the company with three others.

In a report by Economic Times, the Steel Executives Federation of India (SEFI) has reportedly urged the steel ministry to merge state-run Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), Ferro Scrap Nigam Limited (FSNL) and Nagarnar steel plant with SAIL.

As per the report, the steel body emphasized the potential benefits of achieving capacity expansion targets and addressing resource challenges faced by the individual firms, while questioning the wisdom of FSNL disinvestment.

If the merger proposition goes through, SAIL's EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, will likely jump 55% from Rs 130 bn to Rs 200 bn and capacity would increase by 50%.

It will be able to avoid massive capex of Rs 1 tn for organic expansion and manage with minimum capex requirements.

Emcure Pharma IPO

Moving on Emcure Pharmaceuticals' public issue continues to witness major investor interest just hours before it closes on the final day of bidding on 5 July, driven by qualified institutional buyers (QIBs).

The Rs 19.5 bn public offer was subscribed nearly 38 times, with bids for 519.6 m shares as against the 13.7 m shares on offer.

The IPO of the pharma company includes a fresh issuance of shares worth Rs 8 bn and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of 11.4 m shares valued at Rs 11.5 by existing shareholders, including promoters Satish Ramanlal Mehta, Sunil Rajanikant Mehta, Namita Vikas Thapar, and Samit Satish Mehta.

QIBs led the bidding, subscribing a massive 92.9 times their allotted quota, while non-institutional investors picked up 42.6 times the reserved portion.

Employees of Emcure Pharmaceuticals showed significant interest, placing bids 7.9 times their allotted quota while retail investors bought 6.33 times.

Before the public offer going live, Emcure Pharmaceuticals raised Rs 5.8 bn through an anchor book. Prominent global investors such as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley acquired shares worth over Rs 710 m from the anchor book.

Additionally, several mutual fund houses, including SBI, HDFC, ICICI Prudential, Whiteoak Capital, Aditya Birla Sun Life Trustee, Axis, Kotak, Nippon Life India, Mirae, Franklin India, UTI, Canara Robeco, and Motilal Oswal, participated in the anchor book.
 

Thermax Subsidiary's New Order Win

Moving on to news from the engineering sector, shares of Thermax surged after Thermax Group announced that its subsidiary secured an order worth Rs 5.1 bn to set up a 600 MW greenfield energy project in Botswana, Southern Africa.

The Pune-headquartered group's wholly-owned unit Thermax Babcock & Wilcox Energy Solutions Limited (TBWES) will supply two 550 TPH CFBC (circulating fluidized bed combustion) boilers over 23 months.

This contract will provide support to the development of the first phase i.e. the 300 MW power station being established by the undisclosed customer.

TBWES will undertake the designing, engineering, manufacturing, testing, supply, supervision of erection & commissioning, and performance testing for the project.

The power generated is intended for sale to the national utility power company to sustain the growing power requirement of the country.

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