Sensex, Nifty End At Fresh All-Time Highs Led By Gains In Bharti Airtel

Indian equity benchmarks rose to record highs led by gains in telecom, auto and pharma shares.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.6 percent to 32,633.64 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced 0.6 percent to 10,231.

Seventeen out of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended higher led by the S&P BSE Telecom Index's 4.2 percent surge. On the other hand, the S&P BSE Power Index declined 0.1 percent.

• Federal Bank: The stock gained the most in over four months on the back of strong earnings. Net profit grew 31 percent to Rs 264 crore versus Rs 201 crore (YoY). Gross non-performing assets (NPA) came in at 2.39 percent as a percentage of total advances compared with 2.42 percent in the previous quarter.
• Polyplex Corporation: The stock gained more than 5 percent and trading volume was 16 times its 20-day average. The company will set up greenfield PET Film Line Project in Indonesia with a capacity of 44,000 tonnes per annum for an investment of $95 million.
• Cyient: The stock gained close to 4 percent after Reliance MF acquired 23.34 lakh shares in the Company
• Jindal Steel and Power: The Delhi-based steel maker jumped as much as 4.3 percent, the most since October 12, to Rs 169.70 after it repaid outstanding interest to lenders by selling two oxygen plants to SREI Equipment Finance last week, The Economic Times newspaper reported.

Shares of the FMCG maker fell as much as 2.9 percent, the most since August 2, to Rs 1,060.35 after it reported second quarter earnings.

Key Q2 Highlights:

• Net profit at Rs 178 crore against Bloomberg estimate of Rs 179 crore
• Revenue at Rs 1,080 crore versus estimate of Rs 1,130 crore
• Total costs at Rs 823 crore
• Sales volume fall 0.9 percent

Shares of the education service provider rose as much as 3.7 percent to Rs 48 after it reported a 55 percent increase in the net profit in September quarter.

Key Q2 Highlights:

• Net profit up 55 percent at Rs 11.33 crore versus Rs 7.31 crore (YoY)
• Revenue at Rs 60.48 crore versus Rs 38 crore (YoY)

• Bajaj Finance is an expensive stock as it trades at 7-8 times price to book value
• Going forward asset quality can come under pressure due to farm loan waivers and short-term hiccups due to GST implementation
• Investors should wait for more correction to buy this stock
• Bullish on pharma stocks we have been doing SIP in pharma stocks
• Overweight on Sun Pharma, Lupin and Dr. Reddy's Labs as the worst is behind us
• Data usage will soar from hereon for telecom companies
• Pricing power to come back in next few quarters for telcos