SENSEX recovers 121 pts, NIFTY50 at 25,883 in noon deals; Ola Electric, Paytm, HCL Tech among buzzing stocks

The Indian benchmark indices, SENSEX and NIFTY50, recovered from their intraday lows and were trading in green during the afternoon session on Thursday, December 18, supported by gains in IT and AMC stocks. It was also bolstered by positive sentiments as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned into net buyers.

On Wednesday, FIIs bought equity shares worth ₹1,449.22 crore, while DIIs purchased stock worth ₹587.16 crore on a net basis, according to exchange data.

The SENSEX advanced as much as 0.22% to an intra-day high of 84,744.21. Meanwhile, the NIFTY50 touched the session’s high of 25,884.80.

At 12:29 PM, the S&P BSE SENSEX advanced by 121.11 points, or 0.14%, to 84,680.76. It also recovered by 442.33 points from the session’s low. NSE’s NIFTY50 was trading at 25,883.85, marking a 65.30 points, or 0.25% increase.

The top gainers on the NIFTY50 index included InterGlobe Aviation (2.59%), Max Healthcare Institute (1.70%), Tata Consultancy Services (1.51%), Infosys (1.50%) and Hindalco Industries (1.37%).

Conversely, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (-2.74%), Power Grid Corporation of India (-1.55%), Mahindra & Mahindra (-1.33%), Bajaj Auto (-1.07%) and NTPC (-0.96%) were among the top losers.

Buzzing stocks on December 18: Check list

Shares of asset management companies such as HDFC AMC (up 5.29%), UTI AMC (4.99%), and Nippon India (7.11%), and broking firms such as Nuvama (4.56%) and Angel One (2.01%), among others, were trading in the green in the opening deals on December 18, after capital markets regulator SEBI on Wednesday announced several tweaks to mutual fund regulations around expense ratios and exit loads, seeking to adopt a "balanced" stance.

The SEBI board decided to tweak the expense structures for the MF industry by introducing the concept of a base expense ratio (BER), which excludes statutory levies such as security transaction tax (STT) and GST, marking a departure from the current system focused on the total expense ratio (TER).

The concept of TER remains and shall be the sum of the BER, brokerage, regulatory levies, and statutory levies, SEBI stated.

Ola Electric Mobility stock fell as much as 4.5% to reach a 52-week low of ₹31.42 per unit on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, after its founder-promoter Bhavish Aggarwal sold another 4.2 crore shares through open market transactions worth ₹142 crore.

This comes a day after Aggarwal undertook a one-time, limited monetisation of a small portion of his personal stake to fully repay a promoter-level loan amounting to ₹260 crore.

Shares of Sun Pharma declined as much as 3.11% to an intra-day low of ₹1,737.20 apiece, as the US FDA inspected the drug manufacturer’s Baska facility from September 8 to September 19.

In a regulatory filing on Thursday, the company stated that the US FDA subsequently determined that the inspection classification status of the facility was Official Action Indicated (OAI).

According to the US FDA, OAI is an inspection classification, which means regulatory and/or administrative actions are recommended.

The stock of HCL Technologies rose as much as 1.14% to an intraday high of ₹1,673.90 per equity share after the IT services firm signed a contract with the Netherlands’ fourth-largest retail bank, ASN Bank, to accelerate digital transformation and enhance customer experience for the lender.

Shares of One 97 Communications, the parent of Paytm, surged as much as 1.43% to the session’s peak of ₹1,286.80 per unit.

This comes after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) authorised Paytm Payments Services Limited (PPSL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of One 97 Communications, to operate as a payment aggregator for physical (offline) payments and cross-border transactions (both inward and outward).

Shares of Meesho, the recently listed e-commerce firm, zoomed as much as 7.98% to a fresh 52-week high of ₹233.60 apiece during early trade on Thursday, after which the stock slipped into the negative territory before recovering and trading in the green.

This comes a day after a positive note by global investment firm UBS. As per news reports, UBS said that Meesho's asset-light, negative working capital business model has also ensured positive cash flows, unlike other internet businesses.

Max Healthcare's stock surged as much as 1.82% to the day’s high of ₹1,049.90 per equity share, as its board of directors approved the proposal to enter into a share purchase agreement (SPA) for the acquisition of 100% equity stake in Yerawada Properties Private Limited (YPPL), Pune.

The purchase of equity stake shall be carried out in a step-up manner and shall conclude upon receipt of the occupancy certificate for the hospital building planned to be constructed on the said land. In the first tranche, the firm will acquire 100% of the Class A equity shares representing 100% of the voting rights and about 50.22% of the economic interest in YPPL, it said in a regulatory filing.

Furthermore, its board also approved setting up an approximately 450-bedded super specialty hospital on the land owned by YPPL, for an aggregate of up to ₹1,020 crore.

Shares of drug manufacturer Zota Health Care declined as much as 4.98% to an intra-day low of ₹1,561.70 apiece, after its board approved the allotment of equity shares to eligible qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) aggregating to ₹350 crore via the issuance of QIPs.

The company’s fundraising committee, at its meeting held on December 17, approved the issue and allotment of 22,80,130 equity shares to eligible QIBs at the issue price of ₹1,535 per unit, including a premium of ₹1,525 apiece, which includes a discount of ₹80.28, i.e., 4.97% of the floor price, it said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.