Barometers at day`s high; Sensex nears 58,000 mark

The benchmark indices touched intraday high during afternoon trade, buoyed by a strong demand in financial service scrips. The Nifty index traded tad above 17,350 mark.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, S&P BSE Sensex surged 397.39 points or 0.69% at 57,918.45. The Nifty 50 index rallied 112.95 points or 0.65% at 17,358.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.50%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.47%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1,794 shares rose while 1,497 shares fell. A total of 132 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

The active cases comprised 0.04% of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.74%, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

India logged 3,377 new COVID-19 cases taking the country`s total tally of cases to 4,30,72,176, while the active cases rose to 17,801, as per the data updated on Friday. The death toll climbed to 5,23,753 with 60 fresh fatalities.

Gainers & Losers:

HDFC Life Insurance Company (up 3.70%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 2.48%), Tata Motors (up 2.34%), Dr Reddy`s Laboratories (up 2.25%) and Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) (up 2.22%) were the top Nifty gainers.

Axis Bank (down 4.84%), Power Grid Corporation of India (down 2.16%), Bajaj Auto (down 2.11%), Wipro (down 1.73%) and Coal India (down 1.66%) were the top Nifty losers.

Crypto Market:

Among the popular crypto currencies, Binance Coin (BNB) (up 2.92%), Ethereum (ETH) (up 1.01%), Doge Coin (Doge) (up 0.99%), Bitcoin (BTC) (up 0.71%) and Tether (USDT) (up 0.23%) edged higher.

Earnings in Spotlight:

Axis Bank fell 5.25%. The private sector bank`s net profit rose 54% to Rs 4,117.77 crore on 16% increase in total income to Rs 21,999.58 crore in Q4 March 2022 over Q4 March 2021. The bank`s provisions and contingencies (excluding tax provisions) declined by 54% YoY to Rs 987.23 crore in Q4 March 2022 over Q4 March 2021. The bank`s gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 21,822.32 crore as on 31 March 2021 as against Rs 23,301.19 crore as on 31 December 2021 and Rs 25,314.84 crore as on 31 March 2020. The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 2.82% as on 31 March 2021 as against 3.17% as on 31 December 2021 and 3.70% as on 31 March 2020. The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 0.73% as on 31 March 2021 as against 0.91% as on 31 December 2021 and 1.05% as on 31 March 2020.

Biocon fell 0.92%. The drug maker reported a 6% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 239 crore on a 31% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 2,409 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21. On the segmental front, revenue from Generics was Rs 717 crore (up 26% YoY), Biosimilars revenue was Rs 982 crore (up 48% YoY), Novel Biologics revenue was Rs 12 crore and revenue from Research services was Rs 758 crore (up 15% YoY). Gross R&D spend increased by 70% YoY to Rs 232 crore. EBITDA rose by 3% to Rs 659 crore in Q4 FY22 from Rs 641 crore in Q4 FY21. EBITDA margins were at 27% in Q4 FY22 as against 31% in Q4 FY21.

Global Markets:

European markets advanced across the board on Friday as global stocks received a boost from strong corporate earnings, but remain on course for a negative month. The French economy stagnated in the first quarter of the year as weak domestic demand continued despite an easing of COVID-19 restrictions. The euro zone`s second-largest economy was unchanged following growth of 0.8% in the final quarter of 2021.

Meanwhile, global investors continue to monitor the war in Ukraine and its geopolitical implications, after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West of a �lightning fast� response to countries that intervene in the war. Russia shocked the European community by halting gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday because they had refused to pay for the gas in Russian rubles, as Moscow demanded.

Asian stocks closed higher on Friday following big gains overnight on Wall Street. Markets in Japan are closed on Friday for a holiday.

Wall Street ended sharply higher on Thursday after a strong quarterly report from Meta Platforms lifted beaten down technology and growth stocks and offset worries about the US economy`s contraction in the first quarter. The Facebook parent surged 17.6% after the social network reported a larger-than-expected profit and rebounded from a drop in users.

US economic growth fell 1.4% annualised in the first quarter of 2022, government data said Thursday. The data was far worse than the mild increase analysts had expected, and came after the economy had grown 6.9% in the final quarter of 2021.

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