Sensex Rises 200 Points, Nifty Tops 18,350; Sun Pharma and ONGC Top Gainers

Thu, 21 Oct 09:30 am

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Asian share markets are mixed today as rising US bond yields worried investors, although overnight gains on Wall Street provided some support.

The Hang Seng and the Nikkei are trading lower by 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively. The Shanghai Composite is trading higher by 0.5%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices ended higher on Wednesday as investors eyed better than expected third-quarter earnings from US companies.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4% while the Nasdaq declined 0.1%.

Back home, Indian share markets have opened in green, following the trend on SGX Nifty.

Market participants will track shares of Asian Paints, JSW Steel, Biocon, Container Corporation, and Mphasis as these companies are set to report their September quarter numbers today.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 202 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 70 points.

Sun Pharma is among the top gainers today. Bharti Airtel and HCL Tech, on the other hand, are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index has opened up by 0.7%. The BSE Small Cap index is trading higher by 0.8%.

Barring consumer durable stocks, all sectoral indices are trading in green with stocks in the power sector and realty sector witnessing most of the buying.

Shares of Inox Wind and Shoppers Stop hit their 52-week high today.

The rupee is trading at 74.83 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.1% at Rs 47,539 per 10 grams.

Crude oil prices rose today to extend gains from the previous session as US crude and fuel inventories tightened further, with supplies of gasoline hitting a two-year low, pointing to strong demand.

Speaking of the stock markets, Brijesh Bhatia, Research Analyst at Fast Profits Report talks about how to be cautious while trading banking stocks, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

Tune in to the video below to find out more:

In news from the telecom sector, Vodafone Idea is among the top buzzing stocks today.

Vodafone Idea on Wednesday said its board has approved exercise of option of deferment of company's spectrum auction instalments for a period of four years.

The telecom operator informed this in an exchange filing.

Vodafone also said that other options offered in the said notification by DoT will be considered by the Board of Directors within the stipulated timeframe.

In line with the bold reforms announced for the telecom sector, the government had recently written to telcos, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio, asking them to convey by 29 October if they would be opting for four-year dues moratorium.

It had also given 90-day time to the operators to indicate if they want to opt for converting the interest amount pertaining to the moratorium period into equity.

Along with this option, the audited financial statements of the immediately preceding financial year (2020-21) may be submitted.

The government has offered the option to defer payment of the spectrum auction instalments due up to four years, with immediate effect, excluding the instalments due for spectrum auction 2021.

Last month, Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal said the company will opt for payment moratorium offered in the telecom relief package and redirect the cashflow to aggressively build networks.

Vodafone Idea share price has opened the day down by 0.2%.

Moving on to news from the insurance sector, Bandhan Financial Holdings has offered to buy out Future group's stake and acquire a controlling interest in Future Generali India Life Insurance Company.

This company was formed by a three-way joint venture between the Future Group, Industrial Investment Trust (IIT) and Generali, an Italian insurance and asset management giant.

Bandhan Financial Holdings is a holding company of Bandhan Bank.

It is willing to pay a control premium to buy Future Group's 34% and another 17% stake in the unlisted company. Generali owns 49% in the JV while IIT holds 17%.

According to the agreement between the shareholders of the company, Generali will have a say in any such transaction.

Bandhan has made it clear that it would go for the deal only if it gets a majority vote. Generali also has the option to raise its stake with the Indian law now permitting an overseas partner to hold up to 74% in local insurance ventures.

As per reports, if this deal goes through, it would be a win-win for the Bandhan Group, which has cash for big-ticket investment and a distribution network to sell third-party products.

In August 2020, Bandhan Financial Holdings pared its stake in Bandhan Bank to 40% from 61% for a sum of Rs 106 bn. The holding company is expected to use part of the sum it received for the proposed insurance foray.

Last year, Bandhan had also shown interest in getting a controlling stake in Reliance Nippon Life Insurance.

How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on the latest developments from this space.

Speaking of the insurance sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the investment assets of non-life insurers and life insurers over the past 10 years:

Investment Assets of Non-Life Insurers 11x That of Life Insurers

As per Tanushree Banerjee, Co-Head of Research at Equitymaster, the above chart is enough proof of how big an earning opportunity is the zero-cost float to the non-life insurers. Their investment assets under management is nearly 11 times that of life insurers.

Back in April 2021, Tanushree recommended a high-quality stock from this space. Subscribers can read the report here (requires subscription).

And if you are not a StockSelect subscriber, here's where you can sign up.

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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