Nifty near 17,950 mark, media stocks in demand

The frontline indices pared all the losses and traded with minor gains in mid-morning trade. The Nifty traded near the 17,950 mark after hitting the day`s low of 17,885.30 in morning trade. Media shares extended gains for the third consecutive trading session.

At 11:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 61.5 points or 0.10% to 60,710.88. The Nifty 50 index added 34.15 points or 0.19% to 17,949.20.

The broader market outperformed the headline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.75% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.76%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,132 shares rose and 1,128 shares fell. A total of 148 shares were unchanged.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Media index rose 1.59% to 1,711.05, extending gains for the third straight session. The index advanced 2.32% in three trading sessions.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (up 4.57%), New Delhi Television (up 3.47%), Dish TV India (up 1.01%), Sun TV Network (up 0.93%), PVR (up 0.79%), TV18 Broadcast (up 0.33%), Nazara Technologies (up 0.08%), Navneet Education (up 0.04%) edged higher.

On the other hand, Hathway Cable & Datacom (down 1.83%), Network 18 Media & Investments (down 0.68%) declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Raymond tumbled 5.96% and Godrej Consumer Products slipped 3.28%. Raymond said that its associate company Raymond Consumer Care (RCCL) has entered into a business transfer agreement (BTA) with Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL) for sale of its FMCG business for a consideration of Rs 2,825 crore. The Gautam Singhania-led Raymond Group has announced the demerger of its lifestyle business to RCCL to create a listed entity with pure play B2C focused lifestyle business.

Glenmark Life Sciences surged 7.04% after the company`s net profit jumped 48% to Rs 146.36 crore on 20.9% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 621.32 crore in Q4 FY23 over Q4 FY22.

Mphasis added 0.84%. The IT company reported 1.69% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 405.31 crore on 4.14% decline in revenue from operations to Rs 3,361.22 crore in Q4 FY23 over Q3 FY23. As compared with Q4 FY22, the company`s net profit and revenue grew by 3.4% and 2.5%, respectively. The company said that it has recorded new TCV wins of $309 million in Q4 FY23 in direct international business, of which 85% in new generation services.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks advanced across the board on Friday after Wall Street logged one of its best days in the year, powered by earnings from Big Tech companies. Investors in Asia will be closely watching as the Bank of Japan concludes its monetary policy meeting today, the first under new BOJ governor Kazuo Ueda.

U.S. stocks closed sharply higher on Thursday thanks to upbeat results from bellwether tech firms, with Meta Platforms Inc, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc soaring after reporting results.

Data showed that gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 1.1% in the first quarter of the year. That was down from a 2.6% increase in the final three months of 2022.

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