Sensex, Nifty Close Higher Aided By Pharma & Banking Stocks

India's stock benchmarks advanced in trade and recovered from morning lows, aided by gains in pharma, consumer durables and select banking stocks.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.52% to 57,420.24. The 30-stock gauge fell 1% to 56,543.08 in intraday before recovering nearly 900 points. The NSE Nifty 50 index also rose by similar magnitude to 17,086.25. Tech Mahindra Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 3.6%. Today, 38 of 50 shares rose, while 12 fell.

The broader indices almost mirrored their larger peers with S&P BSE MidCap gaining nearly 0.3% and S&P BSE SmallCap adding over 0.5%. Fifteen of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced with S&P BSE Healthcare gaining nearly 1.5%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 2,153 stocks advanced, 1,319 declined and 148 remained unchanged.

"Today Bank Nifty hit a 6 month low but we still maintain a positive outlook on the Indian Banking sector and see a better risk reward ratio looking at the current valuation. Over the past few quarters, banks have strengthened their balance sheet through higher provisioning, fundraising, cautious lending and strengthened risk metrics", Mohit Nigam, head - PMS, Hem Securities wrote in a note. He added "recovery post Covid-19 disruption has been good and the capital levels are at all-time highs. Overall asset quality started improving, which will be reflected in the GNPA levels in the coming quarters. We believe banking stocks are at the start of another growth phase from H2FY22".

Shares of Paras Defence & Space Technologies rose over 8%, the biggest intraday gain in over two months, to Rs 742.9 apiece.

Paras Defence chosen by DRDO to handle the technology of Border Surveillance Systems.

These systems are developed by Instruments Research & Development Establishment and DRDO and will provide all weather surveillance for day and night monitoring of the border areas. It consists of radar, EO sensors, mounted on Pan Tilt platforms.

Source: Exchange Filing, Bloomberg

Shares of Ashoka Buildcon Ltd. rose nearly 11%, the biggest intraday gain in nearly 11 weeks, to Rs 102.4 apiece.

In an exchange filing on Saturday, the company said that its subsidiary Ashoka Concession Ltd. entered into share subscription and share purchase agreements with Galaxy Investments II Pvt.

Galaxy Investments is an affiliate of funds, vehicles and entitites managed or advised by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. The share subscription and share purchases agreements were done for the sale of entire share capital held in the subsidiaries

• Ashoka Highways (Bhandara) Ltd.,

• Ashoka Highways (Durg) Ltd.,

• Ashoka Belgaum Dharwad Tollway Ltd.,

• Ashoka Sambalpur Baragarh Tollway Ltd. and

• Ashoka Dhankuni Kharagpur Tollway Ltd., for an aggregate consideration of Rs 1,337 crore.

Of the 18 analysts tracking the company, 17 maintained 'buy' and one maintained 'hold' recommendations. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 54.7%.

Source: Exchange filing, Bloomberg