NEW DELHI: Private lender HDFC Bank hogged the limelight on Tuesday after CLSA raised the price target of the lender to Rs 1,700. On the other hand, Future Group companies continued to hit the upper circuit for the second straight session after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) cleared RIL’s proposed acquisition of retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses of Future Group.
Overall, buying in HDFC Bank coupled with ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries and ITC took the benchmark equity indices higher for the third straight session. The 30-share BSE Sensex gained around 445.87 points to 44,523, while the 50-share Nifty index advanced 128.70 points to 13,055.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Market is inching higher with more confidence that Covid19 vaccine will be available in India soon. It can provide an advantage to India compared to the rest of the world. Foreign inflows are already on a new high on a monthly basis due to risk on strategy on healthier emerging markets like India. Recently, the broader market, including mid and smallcaps, have started to perform better which may continue in the short-term as large caps look expensive post the solid rally from the Covid low.”
Here is a lowdown on what happened in today’s trade:
HDFC Bank hits all-time high
Before closing 3.47 per cent higher at Rs 1,443.25, shares of HDFC Bank scaled their new all-time high of Rs 1,445 after CLSA raised the price target of the lender to Rs 1,700. “The bank’s CEO transition has been smooth and the lender continues to work on its five-pillar strategy to drive growth targeting newer geographies or ecosystems and the bank is redefining systems or processes, hence the medium-term Opex efficiency still has room to improve. With lower asset quality risk, we increase our target price from Rs 1,525 to Rs 1,700,” CLSA said.
Adani Ports gains over 4%
Shares of Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) advanced more than 4 per cent after the ports and logistics company said it was ranked 14th by the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index 2020, in the global transportation and transportation infrastructure sector. The scrip closed the day at Rs 391.90, up 4.48 per cent, against its previous close of Rs 375.10.
Lakshmi Vilas Bank tanks for 6th day
Shares of Lakshmi Vilas Bank continued to face selling pressure for the sixth straight session and have plunged over 53 per cent during the period after the private lender was placed under moratorium. On Tuesday, the stock tanked 9.88 per cent to Rs 7.30 — its lower circuit limit as well as one-year low — on BSE.
Promoter action: UPL Ltd, Adani Green, Action Construction
Promoter group Uniphos Enterprises had acquired 97,250 shares of UPL Ltd on November 19 and November 20, BSE data showed on Tuesday. The stock closed 0.27 per cent up at Rs 427.45.
Promoter Vijay Agarwal of Action Construction acquired 39,000 shares of the company on November 20. The scrip closed 1.122 per cent down at Rs 93.30.
Adani Green Energy’s promoter group Adani Trading Services LLP revoked 1,10,00,000 pledge shares on November 23. Shares of Adani Green settled 2.11 per cent higher at Rs 1,204.95 on the BSE.
Stocks hit fresh 52-week high
As many as 88 stocks on the NSE scaled their fresh 52-week high during the day. Some of the counters in the list included Adani Ports, Adani Green, Adani Enterprises, Affle India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Kajaria Ceramics, Eicher Motors, Dixon Technologies and Videocon Industries, among others.
Stocks that hit upper circuits
Some 370 stocks hit their upper circuit limits on BSE. This included Future Retail, Future Lifestyle, Future Enterprises, Future Consumer, DHFL and Reliance Infra, among others.
Most active counters
With a total traded quantity of 44.89 crore shares, Vodafone Idea emerged as the most active stock on the NSE in terms of volume. It was followed by YES Bank (17.29 crore), BHEL (7.54 crore) and IDFC First Bank (4.83 crore). On the other hand, HDFC Bank (Rs 2,871 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 2,787 crore), Bajaj Finance (Rs 2,065 crore) and Axis Bank (Rs 1,884 crore) stood among most active in terms of value.
Stocks that gave ‘buy’ signals
About 30 stocks on NSE crossed above the signal line of MACD indicator, flashing ‘buy’ signals. They included TCS, Lupin, Laurus Labs, HUL, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Magma Fincorp, Nava Bharat Ventures, Wipro and Torrent Power, among others.
Where is Nifty headed?
Ashis Biswas, Head of Technical Research, CapitalVia Global Research, believes that sustaining above 13,040 is the key factor from a short-term perspective. “Our research suggests staying above this level market to gain momentum and to open the gate for a movement till 13,170-13,190. We have observed the momentum indicators like RSI, MACD to recover after staying neutral to bearish in recent time.”
