Equity indices continued to trade with modest gains in early afternoon trade. At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 168.85 points or 0.42% at 40,314.32. The Nifty 50 index gained 70.45 points or 0.6% at 11,838.05. The Nifty's 10-day simple moving average stands at 11,855.64, which could act as a resistance in near term. The sentiment was upbeat following the media reports that the Ministry of Finance and PMO will meet today to discuss financial stimulus package. Kotak Mahindra Bank continued to do heavy lifting for the Nifty and the Bank Nifty. While Infosys (down 2.39%), Wipro (down 1.85%) and TCS (down 1.13%) dragged the indices lower. The broader market traded higher. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.02% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.22%. The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1113 shares rose and 1274 shares fell. A total of 145 shares were unchanged. Derivatives: The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 1.51% to 22.4875. The Nifty October 2020 futures were trading at 11,827.15, at a discount of 6.8 points compared with the spot at 11,833.95. The Nifty option chain for 29 October 2020 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 55.55 lakh contracts at the 12,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 38.68 lakh contracts was seen at 11,500 strike price. COVID-19 Update: Union Government today said that the country's COVID-19 recovery rate has crossed 90.62%. More than 63 thousand COVID patients recovered during the last 24 hours. Health Ministry said the total number of recoveries has gone up to over 72 lakh. India reported 625,857 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 119,502 deaths while 7,201,070 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 4,34,83,973 with 11,58,883 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. MSCI Rebalancing: Morgan Stanley Capital Investment (MSCI) announced that it will implement changes in Foreign Ownership Limits (FOL) in the MSCI Global Indexes containing Indian securities coinciding with the November 2020 Semi Annual Index Review. The global index major said it will implement the changes at the close of 30 November, effective 1 December 2020. The change is expected to attract billions of dollars in active and passive flows for domestic stocks where the FOL will increase. Buzzing Index: The Nifty Bank index climbed 1.67% to 24,477. The index lost 2.27% in the past three days. ICICI Bank (up 0.95%), Federal Bank (up 0.74%), HDFC Bank (up 0.49%) Axis Bank (up 0.45%) and IDFC First Bank (up 0.16%) were top gainers. Kotak Mahindra Bank surged 9.37%. The media reported that MSCI's changes in foreign ownership limit for Indian securities in its global indices could attract fresh foreign inflows into Kotak Mahindra bank. Meanwhile, the private lender's net profit soared 26.7% to Rs 2,184.48 crore on 3.78% increase in total income to Rs 8,288.08 crore in Q2 September 2020 over Q2 September 2019. The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 5,335.95 crore as on 30 September 2020 as against Rs 5,619.33 crore as on 30 June 2020 and Rs 5,033.55 crore as on 30 September 2019. The bank's provisions and contingencies fell 9.64% to Rs 368.59 crore in Q2 September 2020 over Rs 407.93 crore in Q2 September 2019. Net Interest income (NII) for Q2FY21 increased to Rs 3,913 crore, from Rs 3,350 crore in Q2FY20, up 17%. Net Interest Margin (NIM) for Q2FY21 was at 4.52%. Operating profit for Q2FY21 stood at Rs 3,297 crore, recording a 31% jump Y-o-Y from Rs 2,509 crore in Q2FY20. The result was announced during market hours on 26 October 2020. Powered by Capital Market - Live News |