Sensex Gains 403 Points, Nifty Ends Above 16,600; Bajaj Finserv Zooms 8%

Tue, 24 Aug Closing

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Indian share markets witnessed positive trading activity throughout the day today and ended higher.

Benchmark indices extended gains as the session progressed and rallied for the second consecutive day as reopening hopes post a full USFDA approval of Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine boosted global markets.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 403 points (up 0.7%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 128 points (up 0.8%).

Bajaj Finserv and Hindalco were among the top gainers today.

Nestle India and Britannia Industries, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 16,673, up by 179 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE MidCap index and the BSE SmallCap index ended up by 1.5% and 1.7%, respectively.

Sectoral indices ended on a positive note with stocks in the metal sector, oil & gas sector and realty sector witnessing most of the buying interest.

FMCG stocks, on the other hand, witnessed selling pressure.

Shares of Bajaj Finserv and AU Small Finance Bank hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Asian stock markets ended on a positive note today.

The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite ended the day up by 2.5% and 1.1%, respectively. The Nikkei ended up by 0.9% in today's session.

US stock futures are trading on a flat note today with the Dow Futures trading up by 32 points.

The rupee is trading at 74.19 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading on a flat note today at Rs 47,576 per 10 grams.

Speaking of the stock market, Brijesh Bhatia, Research Analyst at Fast Profits Report, shares a simple way to help you decide between intraday trading and swing trading, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

Tune in to the video below to find out more:

In news from the hotels sector, Indian Hotels was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) will come out with a Rs 30 bn rights issue, making it the biggest fund-raising activity by the Tata Group company in the recent past.

The issue will meet the company's financing needs for capital expenditure, growth plans and debt repayment.

A meeting of the board of directors was held on 23 August 2021. The last rights issue that IHCL did was in 2017 for Rs 15 bn.

In a statement, Indian Hotels said,

• We would like to inform that the board of directors of the company at its meeting held today has, considered and approved, subject to receipt of relevant approvals from regulatory authorities, issue of equity shares by way of a rights issue to the existing shareholders of the company on a record date for an amount not exceeding Rs 30 bn.

IHCL's net debt ballooned 67% to Rs 31.1 bn by the end of the fiscal 2021 against Rs 18.6 bn reported in the last fiscal.

Earlier in August IHCL disclosed plans of raising of long-term funds not exceeding Rs 2.5 bn by way of secured or unsecured long-term financing.

Taj Hotels and Resorts, the premier brand of IHCL, is aiming to expand its portfolio of properties by 36% to 300 in the next 3-5 years, a major chunk of which will come up under its asset-light strategy where it will not invest its own funds but take readymade hotels under its fold for operation.

This expansion will add about 80 properties for IHCL that currently has an inventory of 221 properties including 150 operational ones in India, 21 abroad and 50 in the pipeline.

Indian Hotels share price ended the day up by 0.8% on the BSE.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that the BSE smallcap index has surged 188% since the crash in March 2020.

Despite the index being up more than 1.8 times, Richa Agarwal, lead Smallcap Analyst at Equitymaster, believes smallcap stocks are set for a massive up move in 2021 and beyond.

Here's why...

The Smallcap to Sensex ratio, a metric referred to get a sense of relative valuations, currently stands at 0.48 times. To be sure, this is higher than a median of 0.43 times.

And yet, it's the lowest of all the peaks in the smallcaps so far. In the last cycle which peaked in January 2018, when the ratio touched 0.49, the peak was still 9 months away.