Stock Market Live: Sensex, Nifty Higher; It, Metals Advance, Realty Hit

Top gainers/losers on Nifty at this hour 

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SC upholds Delhi HC order directing DMRC to pay ₹4,600 cr arbitral award to DAMEPL: PTI

Tata Power subsidiary Tata Power Solar secures India’s largest solar EPC order of 1GW worth ₹5500 crore from SJVN: BSE release 

LIC’s Record IPO Set to Be Fully Sold as Valuation Drives Demand: Bloomberg 

A 210 billion rupee ($2.7 billion) record share sale by state-run Life Insurance Corp. is poised to be fully taken up by investors four days before the offering closes as a low valuation and deep retail discounts drive demand.

By Thursday, the second day of the offering, investors had already put in orders for 79% of the shares for sales in India’s biggest IPO. Around 35% of the total issue is reserved for retail investors and 72% of that tranche was sold 11:55 a.m. in Mumbai, stock exchange data showed.

Demand from LIC insurance policyholders was for almost two-and-a-half times the amount of shares earmarked for them, while employees submitted orders for one-and-a-half times the number of shares available.

L&T bags contract for bullet train project

L&T on Thursday said its construction arm has won a large contract for the bullet train project.

L&T Construction has bagged the project from National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL).

“The railways business of L&T Construction has secured a·contract from NHSRCL to construct 116 route km of High-Speed ballastless track works for Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) project, popularly referred to as the bullet train project,” the company said in a statement.

As per the company, a contract valued at ₹2,500-5,000 crore is a large order.

Japanese Shinkansen track technology will be adopted in this project.

India, France commit to tackling climate change stronger than ever: joint statement

Axis Securities on Bank Nifty 

Insights

Bank Nifty has seen increase in Open Interest of 16.20% with decrease in price of -3.17% indicating Short Build Up.

Nifty has seen increase in Open Interest of 26.31% with a decrease in price of -3.23% indicating Short build up.

BANK NIFTY Strategy : – PUT Spread

View: Moderately BEARISH.

Rationale: – Traders could initiate this spread strategy to make modest returns with limited risk and reward. The spread suggested consists of buying one lot of 35,300 strike PUT option and simultaneously selling one lot of 34,800 strike PUT Option.

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European stocks rally at open on easing Fed concerns

European stocks rose sharply at the open Thursday after strong gains elsewhere as the Federal Reserve downplayed concerns over aggressive interest rate hikes to tackle soaring inflation.

London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index jumped 1.6% to 7,611.14 points.

In the eurozone, Frankfurt’s DAX index soared 2.3% to 14,291.69 points and the Paris CAC rallied 2.4% to 6,547.67.

Asian stock markets and Wall Street surged overnight after the Fed played down chances of a huge US rate hike in the near future.

Oil climbs higher on supply jitters as EU lays out Russian oil ban

Oil prices extended gains on Thursday on supply concerns as the European Union proposal laid out plans for new sanctions against Russia, including an embargo on crude in six months, offsetting concerns over weaker Chinese demand.

Brent crude futures had climbed 85 cents, or 0.8%, to $110.99 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 65 cents, or 0.6%, to $108.46 a barrel.

Both benchmarks jumped more than $1 a barrel earlier in the volatile session after gaining more than $5 a barrel on Wednesday.

Expect repo hikes in June, August; 75 bps rate hike in FY23 looks imminent: Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser, SBI Bank of India

With the current hike of 40 bps in repo rate to 4.40% it seems the rate cycle has made a U-turn (from the steep cuts seen in early 2020) and RBI would continue to increase the rates going forward and may reach the pre-pandemic level of 5.15% by end March 2023. Further, the CRR hike by 50 bps will exert further upward pressure on interest rates while sucking system liquidity by additional ₹87,000 crore. We believe this simultaneous policy announcement of adjusting both the rate and quantum of liquidity is a clever ploy and reinforces the credibility and reputation of central bank. The CRR hike could also open up space for OMO purchases by RBI.

System liquidity remains in surplus, with net durable liquidity at ₹7.2 lakh crore as on 2 May.

Hero MotoCorp sees a bumpy ride in Q4

Automakers are facing the double whammy of rising input costs and subdued demand. In response higher commodity costs, automakers have been resorting to price hikes, but this has weighed on demand. Hero MotoCorp Ltd in its March quarter (Q4FY22) earnings call said it raised prices by ₹1,000 per unit in April which is over and above the significant price hike taken in FY22.

Note that in FY22, even as net realization rose by 11.2% year-on-year (y-o-y), it could only partially offset the y-o-y volume decline of 14.6% in FY22 with standalone revenue from operations falling by 5% y-o-y to ₹29,246 crore. (Read here)

LIC IPO: Day 2 subscription update 

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Axis Securities maintains BUY on Tata Steel 

The stock is currently trading at an attractive valuation of 4.4x 12MF EV/EBITDA, below its 10Y average of 6.3x. We reiterate our BUY rating and value the company using SoTP by assigning a 1-year forward EV/EBITDA based on its geographical segments. We ascribe 6.0x, 5.0x and 3.5x multiple to India standalone, other operations (excl standalone) and Europe on FY24E EBITDA to arrive at a 1-year forward TP of ₹1,700/share (unchanged from our previous TP), implying an upside potential of 35% from the CMP.

Global LNG imports up 4.5% on post-COVID demand surge in 2021: Reuters 

Global imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) grew 4.5% in 2021 from the previous year, supported by a surge in post-COVID industrial demand, especially in China, according to the Paris-based International Group of LNG Importers (GIIGNL).

Global LNG import volumes reached 372.3 million tonnes, a rise of 16.2 million tonnes from 2020, the GIIGNL said in an annual report.

The industry grew only by 0.4% during 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the recovery in 2021 still lagged pre-pandemic growth of 13% growth in 2019 and 8.3% in 2018, according to GIIGNL’s previous annual reports.

Auto retail sales grow 37% YoY in April on low COVID-hit base effect: PTI

Automobile retail sales in India rose 37% in April on a low base of COVID-hit year-ago period, automobile dealers’ body FADA said on Thursday.

Total sales across categories rose to 16,27,975 units in April from 11,87,771 units a year ago.

On a year-on-year basis, all vehicle categories including passenger vehicles and two-wheelers were up as compared with April last year.

Passenger vehicles registrations stood at 2,64,342 units last month, up 25% on year.

India Turns to Expensive Foreign Gas to Ease Its Power Crisis: Bloomberg 

Sweltering heat and ongoing blackouts are forcing India’s liquefied natural gas importers to top up with expensive shipments.

Torrent Power Ltd. and GAIL India Ltd. bought LNG for May delivery in the last week, with the fuel set to be used to help power plants boost generation, according to traders with knowledge of the matter. The utilities paid about triple the normal spot rate for this time of year, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine exacerbates a global supply crunch. 

The purchases are unusual for India’s cost-sensitive power generators, which tend to avoid buying LNG at such high rates. They illustrate how a domestic coal shortage is forcing the South Asian nation to look for alternative fuels no matter the price, further elevating international demand. 

GAIL is seeking at…