Sensex jumps 558 pts; broader mkt outperforms; DRL spurts 4.65%

The domestic equity barometers continued to trade with substantial gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded near the 21,700 level after hitting the day�s low of 21,448.85 in early trade. All the sectoral indices on the NSE traded in the green, with healthcare, pharma and auto shares gaining the most.

At 13:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 557.57 points or 0.78% to 71,697.47. The Nifty 50 index gained 174.60 points or 0.81% to 21,696.70.

The broader market outperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 1.21% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index advanced 1.45%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,409 shares rose and 1,349 shares fell. A total of 113 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

Dr. Reddy`s Laboratories (up 4.65%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 4.23%), Eicher Motors (up 2.95%), Divi`s Laboratories (up 2.54%) and Axis Bank (up 2.28%) were major Nifty gainers.

Larsen & Toubro (down 3.56%), Titan Company (down 1.42%), NTPC (down 0.62%), Britannia Industries (down 0.52%) and SBI Life Insurance Company (down 0.33%) were major Nifty losers.

Dr. Reddy`s Laboratories rallied 4.65% after the drug major`s consolidated net profit increased 10.57% to Rs 1,378.9 crore on 6.57% rise in revenues to Rs 7,214.8 crore in Q3 FY24 over Q3 FY23. The revenue growth was primarily driven by market share gains for existing products in North America and continuation of growth journey in Europe.

Larsen & Toubro slipped 3.56%. Larsen & Toubro reported 15.45% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,947.36 crore on 18.84% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 55,127.82 crore in Q3 FY24 over Q3 FY23. The growth in revenue was aided by ramp up in execution of the strong order book in the Projects and Manufacturing portfolio. The consolidated order book is at Rs 469,807 crore as on 31 December 2023, with international orders having a share of 39%.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) rose 0.34%. The company announced a 15-year expansion of its partnership with Aviva, the UK�s leading Insurance, Wealth and Retirement provider, to transform Aviva�s UK Life business and enhance customer experience leveraging the TCS BaNCS based platform. As part of this, the end-to-end policy administration and servicing will expand to cover over 5.5 million policies, to be managed by Diligenta, TCS� FCA regulated subsidiary in the UK, on behalf of Aviva.

Voltas jumped 7.38% after the company�s net loss narrowed to Rs 28 crore in Q3 FY24 from Rs 110 crore in Q3 FY23. Consolidated total income for the quarter ended 31st December, 2023 was higher by 32% at Rs.2684 crores as compared to Rs. 2036 crores in the corresponding quarter last year.

Piramal Pharma rallied 3.20% to Rs 143.90 after the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 10.11 crore in Q3 FY24 as compared to a net loss of Rs 90.18 crore posted in Q3 FY23. Revenue from operations grew by 14.14% year on year to Rs 1,958.57 crore during the quarter, on the back of double digit growth across all the three businesses.

Global Markets:

Most of the European stocks advanced while Asian stocks traded mixed on Wednesday ahead of the rate decision from the U.S. Federal Reserve and as investors assessed a slew of economic data from across the region.

China�s factory activity contracted for a fourth consecutive month in January. The official non-manufacturing managers� index rose to 50.7 in January from 50.4 in December, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released Wednesday.

US stocks ended mixed on Tuesday ahead of the much-awaited US Fed`s policy outcome.

The International Monetary Fund slightly increased its global growth forecast for 2024, noting that a hard landing is looking less likely but cited ongoing geopolitical conflicts as potential overhangs to global growth. The IMF raised its global growth projection to 3.1% in 2024, which is 0.2% higher than its forecast from October 2023. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its 2024-25 GDP growth forecast for India by 20 basis points to 6.5%.

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