Monday Stock Market Update: Sensex rose by 448 points, Banks Rock today

Markets at a Glance:

China’s better-than-expected macro data, Pharma major Pfizer’s announcement of availability of COVID vaccine by end of this year in US, renewed hopes over US stimulus package before elections due to statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and strong Q2 earnings of major Indian firms boosted the overall sentiment in the stock market today.

NSE Nifty grew by 110.6 points and settled at 11873.05, while Sensex moved upward by 448.62 points and closed around 40431.6. Overall nifty bank soared by 3.12 points, while PSU bank index jumped over 4.17%. Auto, Media, IT and Pharma sectors showcased poor performance. Midcap and small cap indices underperformed Nifty.

Top Gainers/Losers in stock market today:

ICICI Bank, Nestle, Axis Bank, GAIL and SBI were among the top performers during today’s session. On the other hand, Divi’s Labs, Eicher Motors, Hero Motocorp, CIPLA and Bajaj Auto took the most beatings today.

DII/FII Data of today’s market:

DII took away Rs.429.81 crore from markets, at the same time, FII too divested Rs.479.59 crore.

HDFC Bank posted 18.4% increase, while its life insurance arm reported 6% growth in profit on YoY basis:

HDFC Bank beat the market estimates by posting a profit of Rs.7513.11 crore for September quarter, a 18.4% jump over its last year’s same quarter profit of Rs.6345 crore. Total deposits went up by 20.3% to Rs.12,29,310 crore. Domestic retail loans grew 5.3 per cent while wholesale loans were up 26.5 per cent for the quarter on YoY basis. Net Interest Income also rose by 16.7% YoY. Bank also appointed Sashidhar Jagdishan as new MD and CEO. Bank’s stock closed 0.3% higher today at Rs.1203 on NSE.

Its life insurance arm, separate entity called HDFC Life Insurance also reported 5.63% increase in net profit to Rs.326.09 crore for Q2 on YoY basis. Company’s last years’ Q2 profit stood at Rs.308.69 crore. The net insurance premium is also up by 34.77%. Insurer’s stock was up by 2.16% and settled at Rs.573.25 on NSE.

India’s Forex reserves up by $5.867 billion to lifetime high of $551.505 billion in week ended on 9^th Oct:

As per the weekly data release by RBI, country’s foreign exchange reserves surged by $5.867 billion to touch a record high of $551.505 billion in the week ended on 9^th October. As COVID-19 pandemic led to sharp decline in import of crude oil and gold, it saved a lot of foreign reserves which usually get spent over these imports. Also Indian firms attracted huge foreign direct investments (FDI) which caused a total surge of $73.698 billion in foreign reserves of India since March, 2020.

Britannia Q2: Biscuit maker reports 23% jump in consolidated net profit on YoY basis:

Britannia Industries reported consolidated net profit of Rs.495.2 crore during Q2 which is 23% higher than last year’s same quarter net profit of Rs.405.37 crore. Its consolidated revenue from operations grew 12.1 per cent to Rs 3,419.11 crore from 3,048.84 crore reported a year ago.

Company reported Q2 earnings after market hours. Its stock traded 0.59% higher ahead of the earnings and closed at Rs.3769.15 on NSE.

Market Quick Bytes:

• Jet Airways stock touched upper circuit, as committee of creditors (COC) approved resolution plan submitted by consortium of UK’s Kalrock capital and UAE- based Entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan.
• Discount broker UpStox with its 12.2 lakh clients became second largest stock broker in India after Zerodha.
• Despite fall in Q2 profit, Federal Bank stock surged by 7.47% to Rs.56.1 based upon rating upgradation by major brokers.

Read out Market Predictions for this week here.

Read our previous market update here.