After opening the day higher, Indian benchmark indices remained positive as the session progressed and ended the day on firm footing.

Indian equity indices traded higher on Monday after five days of consecutive declines, despite ongoing foreign selling and lackluster corporate quarterly earnings.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 603 points (up 0.8%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 158 points (up 0.8%).

ICICI Bank, Wipro, and JSW Steel are among the top gainers today.

Bajaj Auto, Coal India, and Axis Bank on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The GIFT Nifty was trading at 24,361 up by 213 points at the time of writing.

The BSE MidCap index ended 0.7% higher and the BSE SmallCap index ended 1.1% higher.

Barring energy sector and capital goods sector, all other sectoral indices were trading positive with socks in realty sector, IT sector and metal sector witnessing most buying speer.

Coforge, Poly Medicure, and Deepak Fertilisers hit their respective 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 84.08 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading 0.5% lower at Rs 78,140 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices were trading 0.9% lower at Rs 96,290 per 1 kg.

Here are the three key factors that drive the market's momentum.

#1 Positive Global Cues

Asian markets traded higher, lending positive sentiment to domestic equities.

Japanese stocks experienced a robust rally on Monday as the yen dropped to a three-month low following Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's coalition losing its parliamentary majority in Sunday's election.

#2 Sectoral Trend

All sectoral indices posted solid gains on Monday, with Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Metal, Nifty Auto, and Nifty Realty leading the rally.

The upward momentum in the Indian stock market today was strongly supported by gains in banking stocks, with notable surges in Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, ICICI Bank, and Punjab National Bank (PNB).

#3 Crude Oil

Crude oil prices tumbled more than 4% on Monday after Israel's weekend strike on Iran bypassed oil or nuclear targets, easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

Brent crude oil declined 4.3% to US$ 72.7 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures plunged 4.5% to US$ 68.6. Both Brent and US WTI crude futures hit their lowest levels since October 1 at the open.
 

Texmaco Rail Jumps 6%. Here's Why

In news from the railway sector, shares of Texmaco Rail jumped 6% after the railway firm reported stellar earnings for the September 2024 quarter. The company's net profit surged nearly triple, rising 195% YoY to Rs 741 m.

Texmaco's revenue climbed 67% YoY to Rs 13.5 bn in Q2 FY25.

The railway firm's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), rose 74% to Rs 1.3 bn and the Ebitda margin expanded to 9.8% from 9.5% in the same period last year.

In the past 12 months, the counter has gained 68%. In comparison, Nifty rose 28% during this period. Following the earnings announcement, the company said it successfully completed the acquisition of Jindal Rail Infrastructure on 3 September 2024 and the company has now been renamed Texmaco West Rail.

It was acquired for Rs 6.1 bn, and the transaction represented an FY24 EV/EBITDA multiple of 8.1x. This acquisition positions Texmaco as a market leader in the freight car industry.

During the first half of the year, Texmaco achieved the highest-ever freight car sales in its history, having sold 5,301 freight cars.

Afcons Infra IPO

Moving on, Afcons Infrastructure's Rs 54.3 bn initial public offer (IPO) was off to a slow start on 28 October, the second day of bidding, after the issue was overall subscribed 26%. The public offer drew bids for 22.2 m shares as against 86.6 m shares on offer, according to exchange data.

Afcons Infrastructure is a key engineering and construction arm of the Shapoorji Pallonji group, boasting over 60 years of experience.

The company is globally present in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The company has five major infrastructure business verticals.

As per NSE data, retail investors were at the forefront, buying 32% of the portion reserved for them. The non-institutional investors' portion was booked at just 38% while the employee quota was subscribed at 92%. QIBs or Qualified Institutional Buyers bought 3% shares of their reserved portion.

The issue is a combination of a fresh issue of 27 m shares aggregating to Rs 12.5 bn and an offer for sale of 90.3 m shares aggregating to Rs 41.8 bn.

The company plans to use the IPO proceeds to fund several objectives, including capital expenditure for purchasing construction equipment, meeting long-term working capital needs, prepaying or repaying a portion of certain outstanding borrowings and acceptances, and for general corporate purposes.

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