Sensex, Nifty tank; Power stocks rally, NHPC jumps by more than 12 per cent, Aarti Drugs zooms by nearly 20 per cent

Affected by the weak global cues, Sensex on Thursday slid by 394.40 points or 1.02 per cent to close at 38220.39 levels. Nifty slipped by 96.20 points or 0.84 per cent to close at 11312.20 levels, whereas the India VIX stood at 20.62 jumping 3.31 per cent.

US Federal Reserve raising concerns over uncertainty of US recovery led to the fall of European markets. The US VIX jumped by 5.7 per cent. DAX, CAC 40 and FTSE 100 slipped by more than 1 per cent each. Similarly, the Asian markets were also seen trading weaker with Nikkei, Hang Seng and Shanghai index sliding by more than one per cent each. The equity markets across continents saw fresh weakness as investors globally debated whether the momentum that pushed the S&P 500 to a record high is sustainable or not.

Coming to Indian bourses, the power stocks sizzled in Thursday’s trade despite weak market sentiments, with CESC up by 4.46 per cent, NTPC up by 6.87 per cent, NHPC skyrocketing by 12.17 per cent and Tata Power jumping by 8 per cent.

The Union Power Minister R K Singh on August 19 announced approval of one time relaxation to Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) for extending loans to Distribution Companies (DISCOMs) above limits working capital cap of 25 per cent of last year’s revenues under Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY). This one-time relaxation would help in providing liquidity to the power sector and ensure payments by state governments to DISCOMs. 

Mangalam Drugs & Organics, Aarti Drugs and Hikal Ltd are few of the stocks that gave a price volume breakout in today’s session. Yes Bank, ZEEL, Tata Power, NTPC and Ashok Leyland saw the most active trading in today’s session.

Sensex gainers were NTPC up by 6.87 per cent, ONGC gained 3.33 per cent, Power grid inched up by 2.11 per cent and Tata Steel jumped by 0.14 per cent while HCL Technologies closed flat.

Sensex losers HDFC down by 2.35 per cent, Axis Bank sliding by 2.06 per cent, Bharti Airtel slipping by 1.98 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra weakening by 1.90 per cent and ICICI Bank dropping by 1.72 per cent.

BSE MidCap index closed up by 0.87 per cent and BSE SmallCap Index gained 0.72 per cent thus continued to dominate the key benchmark indices i.e Sensex and Nifty. Varroc Engineering, NHPC and Adani Transmission were the top Midcap gainers in today’s trading session. While IG Petrochemical, ApcoTex Industries Ltd and Aarti drugs were the top SmallCap gainers.

On Thursday, the BSE Power index dominated the markets by jumping more than 4 per cent. BSE Metal index, BSE Realty index, BSE Oil & Gas and BSE Healthcare index were the sectoral indices that closed in green by gaining 0.94 per cent, 0.39 per cent, 0.57 per cent and 0.15  per cent respectively.

BSE Bankex , BSE IT, BSE Telecom and BSE Auto closed in red, slipping by  1.36 per cent,  0.30 per cent,  1.78 per cent and  0.38 per cent respectively.