The equity barometers further extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in early afternoon trade. The Nifty was hovering above 15,100 level. Metals, banks and financial stocks were in demand.
At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 617.55 points or 1.23% at 50,914.44. The Nifty 50 index soared 188.55 points or 1.26% at 15,107.65.
Bajaj Finserv (up 3.63%), Bajaj Finance (up 2.86%), HDFC (up 2.25%) and Infosys (up 2.18%) were major index movers.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.30% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 1.63%. Both these indices outperformed the benchmark indices.
The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,835 shares rose and 964 shares fell. A total of 177 shares were unchanged.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, slumped 6.10% to 22.1650. The Nifty 25 March 2021 futures were trading at 15,163.65, at a premium of 56 points as compared with the spot at 15,107.65.
The Nifty option chain for 25 March 2021 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 22.7 lakh contracts at the 16,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 32.7 lakh contracts was seen at 14,000 strike price.
Economy:
IHS Markit India Services PMI rose to 55.3 in February 2021 from 52.8 in January 2021. The seasonally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index pointed to the sharpest rate of expansion in output in one year. Moreover, the latest reading extended the current growth sequence to five months. Survey participants linked the upturn to improved demand and more favourable market conditions. New work intakes expanded for the fifth straight month, and at the fastest pace over this sequence. According to monitored companies, marketing efforts and increases in new clients led to sales growth.
Meanwhile, the auction of telecom spectrum ended on Tuesday (2 March) with total bids of 77 thousand eight hundred 14 crore 80 lakh rupees for the airwaves. Telecommunications Secretary Anshu Prakash said, incremental bids for 668.20 crore rupees were made on the second and concluding day of spectrum auction.
The bidding took place for spectrum in 800 Megahertz, 900 Megahertz, 1,800 Megahertz, 2,100 Megahertz and 2,300 Megahertz bands. The total quantity of spectrum for which right to use has been acquired in these bands is 855.60 Megahertz.
Three bidders, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance JioInfocomm participated in the auction. A total quantity of 2,308.80 Megahertz spectrum was put to auction, including spectrum that is expiring up to December this year.
Reliance Jio was the biggest bidder acquiring 488.35 Megahertz of spectrum for over 57 thousand 1 hundred 22 crore rupees. Bharti Airtel bid for 355.45 Megahertz of spectrum for over 18 thousand 6 hundred 98 crore rupees. Vodafone Idea bid for 11.80 Megahertz of airwaves for over 1 thousand 9 hundred 93 crore rupees.
Spectrum Usage Charges for the spectrum acquired in this auction will be payable at the rate of 3% of adjusted gross revenue of the licensee, excluding revenue from wireline services.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Bank index gained 1.77% to 36,047.15. The index added 3.57% in the past three sessions.
Punjab National Bank (up 5.73%), RBL Bank (up 4.27%), IDFC First Bank (up 3.49%), Axis Bank (up 2.96%), State Bank of India (SBI) (up 2.92%), ICICI Bank (up 2.36%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 2.19%) and HDFC Bank (up 0.51%), advanced.
Bank of Baroda (BoB) rose 3.06% after the state-run lender said it has closed the qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue, which was conducted to raise up to Rs 4,500 crore. The capital raising committee approved the issue price of Rs 81.70 per equity share (including a premium of Rs 79.70), which is at a discount of 5% (Rs 4.28 per equity share) to the floor price of Rs 85.98 apiece, BoB said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The issue opened on 25 February 2021.
Stocks in Spotlight:
HCL Technologies rose 0.80%. The IT major and Google Cloud announced the expansion of their strategic partnership to bring HCL Software's Digital Experience (DX) and Unica Marketing cloud-native platforms to Google Cloud. The announcement follows the success of the initial Google and HCL Software Commerce partnership announced in June 2020.
V-Mart Retail surged 5.44% after the company announced that it has opened a new store in Bihar. The retailer also said that it has also closed two stores in Assam and Uttar Pradesh, respectively. With this, the total number of V-Mart stores now stands at 273.
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