Sensex Ends 371 Points Higher; Banking and Finance Stocks Witness Buying

Tue, 28 Apr Closing

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Indian share markets witnessed most of the buying interest during closing hours today and ended on a strong note.

Benchmark indices rose sharply in the afternoon session, backed by gains in private bank stocks and finance stocks.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 371 points (up 1.2%) and the NSE Nifty closed higher by 99 points (up 1.1%).

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended their day up by 0.8%.

On the sectoral front, gains were largely seen in the banking sector, finance sector and realty sector.

Asian stock markets ended on a mixed note today as oil continued its downward move on fears that global oil storage capacity could be over in few weeks due to weak demand.

As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was up 1.2% and the Shanghai Composite stood lower by 0.2%. The Nikkei was down 0.1%.

European shares hovered near two-week highs as strong earnings reports from companies, including Novartis and UBS, outweighed a slump in oil prices.

Gold prices are currently trading down by 0.6% at Rs 45,894.

The rupee is currently trading at 76.19 against the US$.

Speaking of Indian share markets, the coronavirus impact has shaken markets worldwide. Indian stock markets have felt the full impact too.

For the BSE Sensex, FY20 was the second worst year post FY08, the year of the global financial crisis.

Good Time to Start Investing Now?

Naturally, there is an atmosphere of fear all round.

Is it time to sell stocks now? Will the correction get worse?

History has shown that after years like the one we had just now, the next 3 years are good for the markets. In fact, these corrections are the rare times when you find businesses with solid fundamentals at reasonable valuations.

If you can find good businesses that can survive the current crisis, you will do well in the long run.

Moving on, market participants were tracking Axis Bank share price and Atul share price as these companies announced their March quarter results (Q4FY20) today.

You can read our recently released Q4FY20 results of other companies here: Wipro, TCS, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Tata Elxsi, ACC, CRISIL, Mindtree.

In news from the energy sector, shares of oil marketing companies (OMCs) witnessed buying interest today after crude oil prices slumped overnight on concerns over scarce storage capacity and expectations that fuel demand may only recover slowly as coronavirus pandemic restrictions are gradually eased.

Extending previous session's slide, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell as much as 16%. WTI had plunged 25% on Monday.

Brent crude futures fell to a low of US$ 18.85.

Crude oil prices across the globe are in downtrend on higher supply pressure on swelling inventories while crude oil demand is at multiyear lows due to stalled world economy.

Last week, oil futures marked their third straight week of losses, with Brent ending 24% down and WTI off about 7%.

According to a Reuters report, prices have now fallen for eight of the past nine weeks.

What effects falling crude oil prices have on Indian stocks markets and the Indian economy remains to be seen. Meanwhile we will keep you updated on the latest developments from this space.

Moving on to news from the insurance sector, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) said it underwrote the highest number of policies in over six years during the previous financial year despite a washed-out closing fortnight in March, when life insurers typically process higher volumes of business.

In terms of individual new business, LIC issued 21.9 million policies in the fiscal year.

The insurer's first-year premium income grew 25% to Rs 510 billion compared to an industry growth of about 11.6%, LIC said in a round-up of its performance in the just concluded financial year.

LIC collected single premium of Rs 219.7 billion and non-single premium of Rs 292.6 billion, with a mix of about 43% for single premium and 57% for non-single premium.

LIC said that its composite market share in number of policies touched 75.9% in 2019-20, increasing by 1.2% over the period.

In other news, HDFC Life Insurance company reported a 14.4% decline in its net profit for the quarter ended March, hurt by losses on investments.

The life insurer reported a net profit of Rs 3,117.1 million in the March quarter, compared with Rs 3,640.1 million in the same quarter a year ago.

The company's premium income in the quarter edged up 2.1% to Rs 104.6 billion from Rs 102.5 billion in the same period a year before.

The company has set up a Covid Reserve Fund with reserves to the tune of Rs 410 million, covering around 4,500 lives.

The company's board also approved fund raising of up to Rs 6 billion via non-convertible debentures (NCDs).

ended the day up by 0.3%.

Speaking of the insurance sector, this is one sector which is a clear outperformer in this volatile market.

With the huge future potential of the sector, the outperformance is not surprising. India's life insurance penetration i.e. insurance premiums as a percentage of GDP, is very low compared to the global average.

The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11-13% over the next five years. India's large youth population and growing awareness about insurance is bound to accelerate growth.

As per Tanushree, this is one of the megatrends that will help what she calls the Rebirth of India.

She has identified the 7 best stocks that will profit from the Rebirth of India. You can read about these top 7 stocks here.

To know what's moving the Indian stock markets today, check out the most recent share market updates here.

For information on how to pick stocks that have the potential to deliver big returns, download our special report now!

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