Previous closing (18 February 2021)
Nifty50: 15,118 ▼ 89 (-0.5%)
Sensex: 51,324▼ 379 (-0.7%)
Nifty Bank: 36,587 ▼ 323 (-0.8%)
In the news
Ambuja Cements posts strong quarter
- The Gujarat-based cement company reported a 41% YoY rise in standalone net profit to ₹497 crore for Q4 (follows a December ending year). The company attributed the strong growth to a 7% increase in volumes, which led to a 14% jump in sales to ₹3,468 crore.
- Rise in volumes, better price realisation and cost controls helped to push up the EBITDA margins to 22.1% from 18% last year. The results were announced post market hours. Meanwhile, the stock fell 1% yesterday.
Tejas Networks hits upper circuit
- Shares of the telecom equipment maker hit the 10% upper circuit after the government announced a ₹12,200 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the telecom gear manufacturing in India.
- The PLI scheme is expected to lead to an increase in production by ₹2.4 trillion, including exports of ₹2 trillion, in the next five years. The stock has risen over 20% in the last two sessions and has gained over 43% so far this month.
L&T bags large NPCIL deal
- The construction major has won a contract at the Nuclear Power Corporation of India’s Kudankulam Nuclear power Plant. The plant is the country’s first Light Water Reactor with a total capacity of about 6,000MW.
- The exact size of the deal remains undisclosed but is pegged at ₹1,000-2,500 crore. L&T’s stock closed 1.5% down yesterday amid weak market conditions.
Domestic air travel declines in Jan
- As per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the number of domestic air passenger traffic was down 40% YoY to 7.7 million in January 2021. The pandemic continued to hit the airlines sector.
- Indigo (-1.1%) flew 42 lakh passengers in the month and captured 54.3% of the domestic flights market. Meanwhile, shares of Spicejet ended flat.
US markets drop on weak labour market
- The higher-than-estimated rise in the initial jobless claims to 861,000 indicates weak recovery in the US labour market. The Dow fell 0.3% yesterday.
- Further, selling pressure on tech majors such as Apple, Facebook and Google weighed on the Nasdaq which was down 0.7%.
Sectoral indices (Previous closing)
| Top gainers | Top losers |
| Nifty PSU Bank ▲ 5.6% | Nifty Fin Serv ▼ 1.4% |
| Nifty IT ▲ 1.3% | Nifty Auto ▼1.3% |
Global markets (at 8:30 am today)
| Indices | Today's movement |
| Nikkei 225 (Japan) | ▼ 0 .9% |
| Hang Seng (Hong Kong) | ▼ 1.1% |
| SSE Composite (China) | ▼ 0 .9% |
| Dow Jones (US) (17 Feb) | ▼ 0 .3% |
Fact of the day
In May 2010, a man bought two pizzas worth $30 for 10,000 Bitcoin, which was then worth $0.003. At current Bitcoin rates, the pizzas would be worth more than $512 million.
Source: Investor Place
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