Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex rallies over 600 points, Nifty above 14,500; banks, metals lead

Buzzing | Shares of HCL Technologies share price fell over 3 percent after the IT major reported a 25.6 percent decline in consolidated profit at Rs 2,962 crore in Q4FY21 as against Rs 3,982 crore in the previous quarter.

Manish Hathiramani, Proprietary Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments

The Index is venturing closer to its resistance zone which is between 14,500-14,700. If we are successful in getting past that, we will head closer to 15,000. If we turn from these levels, we might drift down to re-test the recent lows of 14,150-14,200.

Buzzing | ICICI Bank shares rally over 6% after Q4 earnings

Shares of private sector lender ICICI Bank jumped over 6 percent after the bank reported a 260.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit at Rs 4,402.6 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 1,221.36 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, ICICI Bank said in a filing to BSE. Net interest income (NII) grew by 16.9 percent to Rs 10,431.13 crore in Q4FY21 from Rs 8,926.9 crore in Q4FY20.

Market Opens | Indian equity benchmark indices opened higher on Monday following gains in Asian peers amid strong global cues. At 9:15 am, the Sensex opened 0.67 percent, or 318.92 points, higher at 48,197.37, while the Nifty50 index opened at 14,449.45, up 108.10 points, or 0.75 percent. Broader markets, smallcap and midcap indices supported the rally. Banks, metals, pharma and auto stocks saw the most gains.

Natco Pharma | The company has sought Emergency approval of Molnupiravir capsules for COVID-19 treatment

Reliance Industries | The company and bp announced the start of production from the Satellite Cluster gas field in block KG D6 off the east coast of India.

Market Watch: Prakash Diwan, Market Expert

On ICICI Bank: Stock will definitely see a rebound and you will probably see weightages go up in a lot of long-only portfolios which is going to be far beneficial than what we have seen and watch out for Axis Bank as well because of that. It is going to be a rub off effect today positionally for people to look at the next best corporate bank.

On Reliance: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and BP are going to start production in the second new deepwater gas field in KG-D6 block is logically positive news. The stock will take this with both hands.

UK economy set to grow faster than the U.S. this year – Goldman

Britain looks set to see faster economic growth than the United States this year as the country races ahead with its vaccination programme after its slump in 2020, Goldman Sachs said on Sunday. The bank said in a note to clients that it now expects British gross domestic product to grow by a “striking” 7.8% this year, “above our expectations for the US”

Mutual Funds add 81 lakh investors account in FY21, experts hopeful of continued growth

The mutual fund industry added more than 81 lakh investor accounts in 2020-21, taking the total tally to 9.78 crore, and experts hope that the healthy growth in folios would continue in the ongoing fiscal also. Investor account in equity-oriented schemes surged by 24.3 lakh to 6.68 crore at the end of past fiscal from 6.44 crore in March 2020. Besides, the debt-oriented scheme folios count rose by 16.16 lakh to 88.4 lakh. Read here.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Indian markets are likely to continue with its volatility till COVID-19 cases continue its upward trajectory. Investors would continuously watch out government’s course of action along with progress on the vaccination drive. Once the availability and the pace of vaccination picks up and daily cases start subsiding, we expect the narrative to gradually shift from Covid-19 and restrictions back to fundamentals. We would recommend investors to take advantage of this volatility as the medium-term thesis remains unchanged.

ICICI Bank Q4 net profit jumps 260% to Rs 4,402.61 crore

Private sector lender ICICI Bank reported a 260.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) jump in net profit at Rs 4,402.6 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 1,221.36 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, ICICI Bank said in a filing to BSE. Net interest income (NII) grew by 16.9 percent to Rs 10,431.13 crore in Q4FY21 from Rs 8,926.9 crore in Q4FY20. Read more.

Oil inches lower on concerns over COVID-19 surge in India, Japan

Oil prices eased slightly on Monday on concerns that a resurgence of coronavirus infections in India and Japan, the world’s third and fourth largest oil importers, would cut fuel demand in Asia. Brent crude futures fell 8 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $66.03 a barrel, following a 1.1 percent rise on Friday. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 4 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $62.10 a barrel, after rising 1.2 percent on Friday. Both benchmark crudes fell about 1 percent last week.

Rupee | Falling for the fourth session in a row, the rupee on Friday closed below the 75 mark against the US currency for the first time in nearly two weeks as a record spike in COVID-19 cases and losses in the domestic equities weighed on investor sentiment. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened lower at 75.02 against the previous close of 74.94 and traded in the range of 74.75 to 75.07 during the day. The rupee finally ended at 75.01, the lowest closing level since April 12, registering a fall of 7 paise over its previous close. In the four sessions since Monday, the rupee has dropped by 0.89 per cent or 66 paise.

SGX Nifty Indicates a Positive Start | The trend on SGX Nifty indicates a positive start for the broader index in India. The Nifty futures were trading 41.00 points or 0.29 percent higher at the 14381.00 level on the Singaporean Exchange at 7:30 am.

Asian shares pulled higher by China, eyes on Fed, US GDP

Asian stocks rose on Monday with Chinese shares near three-week highs as signs the world economic recovery was well on track bolstered risk appetite, while the US dollar slipped to a two-month low. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 0.3 percent to surpass critical chart resistance of 700 points and reach its highest since March 18.

Wall Street | US stocks rose in a broad rally on Friday as increased factory output and housing data supported expectations of a swift economic recovery，while big tech stocks rose in anticipation of strong earnings reports next week. The S&P 500 gained 1.09 percent at 4,180.17, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.67 percent to 34,043.49. The Nasdaq Composite added 1.44 percent at 14,016.81.

First up, here is quick catchup of what happened in the markets on Friday

Indian equity indices ended lower Friday dragged by selling in IT, FMCG and pharma stocks. The Sensex fell 202.22 points or 0.42 percent to 47,878.45, while the Nifty closed 64.80 points, or 0.45 percent lower at 14,341.35. Broader markets outperformed the benchmarks as the Nifty Midcap100 and Nifty Smallcap100 ended higher. Among sectoral indices, IT, FMCG, Pharma, Metal and Realty ended in the red, while gains were seen in Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Media indices.

Good morning, readers! I am Ankit Gohel from the market’s desk of CNBC-TV18. Welcome to our market blog, where we provide rolling live news coverage of the latest events in the stock market, business and economy. We will also get you instant reactions and guests from our stellar lineup of TV guests and in-house editors, researchers, and reporters. If you are an investor, here is wishing you a great trading day. Good luck!