Market Movers: Strides, Vodafone shine, financials party; 90 scrips at 52-week lows

NEW DELHI: The bulls upped the ante on Dalal Street on Wednesday, building on the gains of last two days as multiple parts of the world, previously under lockdown, started opening their economies.

Market activity also heightened ahead of Thursday’s expiry of futures & options contracts, as bank and financial stocks led the gainers while pharma and FMCG slipped in a repeat of Tuesday’s performance.

Here are the key trends captured from Wednesday’s session:

Financials zoom, again

In a repeat of Tuesday’s performance, bank and financial stocks climbed further shrugging off worries of a rise in bad loans. HDFC jumped 7.07 per cent to Rs 1,837 while HDFC Bank rose 4.87 per cent to Rs 976.75. SBI, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance were among the other top gainers, adding 2-3 pe cent. Axis Bank faced Q4 heat and slipped 3.67 per cent to Rs 438 after reporting a surprise loss.


Rupee hits 3-week high

The rupee touched its three-week high level against the US dollar in signs that equity outflows have eased and corporate dollar inflows have started trickling in, said analysts. “Risk appetite improved on the back of easing lockdown restrictions in major global economies, which could take the rupee to 75.20 mark in the near term. The domestic currency is seen trading in a band between 75.20 and 76.60 levels in near term,” said Sugandha Sachdeva VP-Metals, Energy & Currency Research, Religare Broking.

FMCG stocks fall for 2nd day

FMCG stocks, which were Street’s favourites when everything was going down last month, saw profit booking for the second day on the trot. Nifty FMCG Index fell 0.39 per cent dragged by HUL, Dabur, Nestle India and Emami. Hindustan Unilever, which is one of the heavyweights in the index, dropped 2.44 per cent to Rs 2,234 after reports that GSK was planning to offload its stake in the company.

Strides, Vodafone shine

Shares of Strides Pharma spiked 20 per cent to Rs 449.10 after the company said it had started exporting favipiravir antiviral tablets that are being used in treatment of Covid-19 in some countries. Vodafone Idea rose 4.99 per cent to Rs 4.21 after the Supreme Court asked the government to process tax refunds to the debt-laden company.


Smallcaps continue to lag

Smallcap stocks continued to underperform their largecap peers. Nifty Smallcap index gained 0.72 per cent to 4,050 while Nifty Midcap index added 1.28 per cent to 13,227 and the broadest Nifty500 rose 1.63 per cent to 7,797. The Nifty50 index jumped 1.84 per cent to 9,553.

90 scrips hit 52-week lows

As many as 90 stocks, mostly from the smallcap space, slumped to their 52-week lows. They included names like Chalet Hotels, Mahindra Lifespace and Quess Corps.

Stocks that hit upper circuits

As many as 274 stocks hit their respective upper limits as mandated by exchanges. They included Strides Pharma, HEG, Credit Access Grameen, Aavas Financiers, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, Graphite India, Va Tech Wabag and Mahindra CIE Automotive, among others.


Stocks giving ‘sell’ signals

As many as 21 names flashed the ‘sell’ signals as they crossed below the signal line on trend indicator MACD. They included Sinclairs Hotels, JMT Auto, Andhra Cement<, Emami Realty, SBC Exports, Trescon and BDH Industries, among others.

Where is Nifty headed?

The pullback got extended beyond the 38.2 per cent retracement mark, which was near Rs 9,400. However the index is still trading within the rising wedge pattern, said analysts. “We need to see whether the index sustains at higher levels or not as today’s move could be attributed to the excessive volatility owing to the expiry of the April series. Going ahead 9,600-9,700 will be the make or break area for the index to watch out for,” said Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Senior Technical Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.