Sensex and Nifty continue their recovery

On Thursday as well, Sensex and Nifty closed in green, thus witnessing second consecutive day of recovery post the downfall experienced by Indian benchmark indices on April 21, 2020. Today, Sensex closed up by 1.54 per cent which is 483.53 points at the level of 31,863.08 while, Nifty climbed by 1.38 per cent which is 126.60 points to the level of 9,313.90.  

As companies have started announcing their Q4FY20 results, the consumer confidence seems to have boosted as few may seem to be impacted severely as a result of Coronavirus. The stock of Alembic pharmaceuticals saw a rally of around 10 per cent after the company announced positive Q4FY20 results with 84 per cent and 80 per cent respective growth in the company’s US Generics and international formulations business. Reserve Bank of India on Thursday said it has decided to conduct simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under open market operations (OMO) for Rs 10,000 crore each, on April 27 on the review of current and evolving liquidity as well as market conditions. On the basis of these market improvements, investor sentiments strengthened on Thursday. Gains in domestic equities and strengthening of other Asian currencies led to rupee soaring by 62 paise over its previous close to settle at 76.06 (provisional) against the dollar.

Sensex gainers include Kotak Mahindra Bank-up by 8.59 per cent, TCS-up by 5.97 per cent, ICICI Bank closed up by 4.97 per cent, ONGC increased by 2.98 per cent as oil prices rose, Bajaj Auto closed up by 1.63 per cent, Tata Steel was up by 0.67 per cent, etc.

Sensex losers included Titan Company-down by 4.18 per cent, Power Grid fell by 2.59 per cent, NTPC was down by 2.41 per cent, L&T fell by 1.41 per cent, Nestle India was down by 1.29 per cent etc. As consumer goods giant-Unilever Plc withdrew its full-year forecast saying that Coronavirus lockdowns in India and China, along with lower ice-cream sales has offset strong sales of cleaning items in US and European markets. Additionally, the company’s sales across Asia, Middle East and Russia have been affected as lockdowns in the recent quarter restricted restaurant visits and shopping in China and also led to factory shutdowns that halted productions in India. This caused the stock of Indian counterpart-Hindustan Unilever to slip by 2.97 per cent.

Mid-Cap and Small-Cap indices gained by 0.90 per cent and 1.35 per cent, respectively. Amongst sectoral indices, IT index climbed by 4.85 per cent, followed by Bankex, which went up by 3.39 per cent.