Stock Market Live: Sensex at day’s high, Nifty around 14,850 after RBI policy; metals, banks lead rally

E-commerce giant Flipkart eyes $10 billion IPO in the fourth quarter: Report

Walmart-owned Flipkart is aiming to roll out its IPO (initial public offering) in the fourth quarter in the United States, Bloomberg reported, quoting unnamed sources. Walmart has also set up an internal team to look after Flipkart’s IPO rollout, add the sources. However, the discussions relating to Flipkart’s IPO are “still in flux” and prone to change, the report said.

Earlier in March, it was reported that Flipkart is exploring the SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) route for a public listing. A SPAC, or a blank-check firm, is a company with a business plan centered around a merger or acquisition with another company. Companies generally prefer the SPAC route for IPOs as it involves less scrutiny. Before Flipkart, Grofers has also explored the SPAC option for public listing. Read more.

Dixon inks pact with Bharti Enterprises to form JV for manufacturing telecom products

Dixon Technologies has entered into a pact with Bharti Enterprises to form a joint venture to manufacture of telecom and networking products. Dixon said its wholly-owned subsidiary- Dixon Electro Appliances or any other company identified by the parties will be the JV company which will undertake manufacturing of telecom and networking products like modems, routers, set top boxes, IOT devices, etc for the telecom sector/industry including Airtel.

Mahindra & Mahindra | Mahindra group has signed an MoU with Mahindra MSTC Recycling Pvt Ltd (MMRPL) towards offering its customers first of its kind end-to-end solution for the scrapping of vehicles. MMRPL is engaged in the business of acquiring used/end of life vehicles to dismantle and scrap it under the brand name of CERO.

Rupee slumps 24 paise to 73.66 against US dollar in early trade

The Indian rupee slumped 24 paise to 73.66 against the US dollar in opening trade on Wednesday, after the Reserve Bank of India maintained status quo on policy rates for the fifth time in a row. The central bank kept its key policy repo rate unchanged at 4 percent, but warned that the recent surge in COVID-19 infections has created uncertainty over economic growth recovery.

At the interbank forex market, the domestic unit opened at 73.52 against the US dollar, then fell further to 73.66, registering a fall of 24 paise over its previous close. On Tuesday, the rupee had settled at 73.42 against the American currency. Read more.

Positive on Adani Ports, Bharti Airtel, RJio, says Deven Choksey

Deven Choksey, MD of KRChoksey Securities, said some of the infrastructure funds, which are looking at India entry, would definitely find Adani Ports more meaningful. “Because this is one company which has got the largest capacity to handle cargo. That is where they get entry into this stock from an investment perspective,” he said. On Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, he said, “Trading of the spectrum was definitely there. Reliance Jio had always acquired spectrum. Even in earlier days, they acquired from Reliance Communications and from others as well. So currently, it is a win-win kind of a situation for both Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio.” Read more.

Steel Strips Wheels | The company has confirmed export orders of close to 4,00,000 wheels for US & EU caravan trailer market, US mobile home and US truck trailer market. The company will complete their execution by early July 2021 from its Chennai & Dappar plants.

Buzzing | Tata Steel shares hits record high

Shares of Tata Steel ralleid over 2 percent to hit a record high of Rs 884.85 after the company achieved its highest-ever quarterly crude steel production of 4.75 million tonnes with a 3 percent QoQ growth in Q4FY21. Full-year FY21 production was lower by 7 percent YoY primarily due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 1HFY21, the company said.

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

The markets are still trading in a tight range between 14,450 and 14,900. Until we do not get past this range, we will not see a meaningful move in either direction. If we can get past 14,900, we should be headed higher to 15,300 and if we break 14,450, there is every possibility we crack more and go down to test 14,200. The Nifty is testing our patience but it will be worth the wait once one side of the range is taken out!

RBI estimates retail inflation at 5% for Q4 FY21

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revised downward the retail inflation forecast for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 at 5 percent against 5.2 percent projected earlier.​ RBI expects CPI inflation to be at 5.2 percent in Q1FY22, 5.2 percent in Q2 FY22, 4.4 percent in Q3 FY22, and 5.1 percent in Q4 FY22.

RBI retains FY22 GDP growth forecast at 10.5%

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has retained India’s FY22 GDP growth at 10.5 percent. Announcing the first bi-monthly monetary policy for FY22, RBO Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the central bank sees India’s real GDP growth at 22.6 percent in Q1FY22, 8.3 percent in Q2FY22, 5.4 percent in Q3FY22, and 6.2 percent in Q4FY22. Read here.

Barbeque Nation Hospitality lists with 2% discount at Rs 489.85 per share on NSE

Barbeque Nation Hospitality made a tepid debut on the exchanges Wednesday as the shares got listed at Rs 489.85 apiece on the NSE, a 2.03 percent discount to the issue price of Rs 500. The stock got listed at Rs 492 on the BSE, a discount of 1.6 percent to the issue price.

Buzzing | Shares of Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel gained after Reliance Jio Infocomm signed an agreement with Bharti Airtel to acquire a portion of spectrum in 800 MHz band for Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai circles at an aggregate value of Rs 1,497 crore. 

Equitas Small Finance Bank | The bank’s loan growth rate in Q4FY21 slows down, deposit momentum continues to remain strong. Deposits were at Rs 16,391 crroe, up 51.9 percent, YoY & 3.34 percent, QoQ. CASA was at Rs 5613 crore, up 154.2 percent, YoY and 41.5 percent, QOQ; CASA ratio was at 34.24% versus 20.47% YoY and versus 25.01% QoQ; Advances at Rs 17,896 crore, up 16.5 percent, YoY & 2.9 percent QoQ; Disbursals at Rs 2,535 crore, up 5.4 percent, YoY and 3 percent, QoQ.

Market Opens | The Indian benchmark indices opened with minor gains Wednesday amid mixed global cues. The Sensex opened 75.7 points, or 0.15 percent higher at 49,277.09, while the Nifty opened at 14,716.45, up 32.95 points, or 0.22 percent. Banking stocks fell ahead of the RBI monetary policy announcement. Broader markets gained with Nifty Midcap100 and Nifty Smallcap100 trading 0.5 percent higher each. Metals, pharma, FMCG and Auto indices traded in the green.

Market Watch: VK Sharma of HDFC Securities

– Buy 3,700 Call option on Divi’s Laboratories at Rs 124 with a stop loss of Rs 90 and a target of Rs 200.

– Buy 900 Call option on Max Financial Services Ltd at Rs 36 with a stop loss of Rs 30 and a target of Rs 48.

– Buy 4,600 Call option on Naukri at Rs 166 with a stop loss of Rs 130 and a target of Rs 240.

– Buy 820 Call option on Tata Chemicals at Rs 30 with a stop loss of Rs 25 and a target of Rs 40.

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

Going ahead, Indian markets are likely to track global cues including progress of President Joe Biden’s new infrastructure proposal along with the earnings season which would kick start from next week and would keep markets volatile. Concerns over the fast spreading 2nd wave of Covid in India continues to remain. Economic activities might take a hit due to partial lockdowns and markets might react accordingly in coming weeks.

Overall markets are likely to remain in a consolidative mode for some time awaiting for fresh positive triggers. Hence, investors would do well by gradually accumulating good quality companies on any declines in the market.

Gold eases from two-week high as economic recovery hopes grow

Gold prices inched lower on Wednesday, retreating from a two-week high hit in the previous session, as a raft of strong US data boosted hopes of a quick economic recovery. Spot gold was down 0.2 percent to $1,739.46 per ounce. Gold futures slipped 0.1 percent to $1,740.90 per ounce.

IMF revises India’s FY22 GDP forecast to 12.5%

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest World Economic Outlook update for April 2021, has revised India’s GDP growth forecast. The IMF now expects India’s economy to grow by 12.5 percent in FY22, 100 basis points higher than its last forecast in January. It expects India’s GDP growth at 6.9 percent in FY23, about 10 basis points higher than the previous forecast. According to IMF, India’s economy contracted by 8 percent in FY21. However, over the medium term, India’s growth rate is expected to stabilise around 6.5 percent by FY27, IMF said. Read more.

Oil prices rise on stronger economic outlook, US stockpile draw

Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday on the prospects for stronger global economic growth amid increased COVID-19 vaccinations and a report that crude inventories in the United States, the world’s biggest fuel consumer, fell. Brent crude futures for June rose by 34 cents, or 0.5 percent, to USD 63.08 a barrel by 0123 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude for May was up 32 cents, or 0.5 percent, to USD 59.65.

”Optimism on the global economic outlook boosted sentiment in the crude oil market,” analysts from ANZ bank wrote in a note on Wednesday. Prices were buoyed as data on Tuesday showed US job openings rose to a two-year high in February while hiring picked up. This followed earlier data showing US services activity touching a record high in March and China’s service sector showing the sharpest increase in sales in three months. More here