The domestic equity indices were trading on a firm footing in early afternoon trade. Optimism surrounding quarterly earnings supported buying in domestic shares. At 12:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 120.92 points or 0.25% at 48,839.44. The Nifty 50 index gained 38.95 points or 0.27% at 14,673.10.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.96% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 1.05%.
The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 1,807 shares rose and 971 shares fell. A total of 170 shares were unchanged.
Derivatives:
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, dropped 3.14% to 22.9475. The Nifty 27 May 2021 futures were trading at 14,729.25, at a premium of 56.15 points as compared with the spot at 14,673.10.
The Nifty option chain for 27 May 2021 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 23.8 lakh contracts at the 15,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 34.8 lakh contracts was seen at 14,000 strike price.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty Media index rose 1.61% to 1,551.70. The index skid 0.64% in the last two sessions.
Dish TV India (up 16.50%), Jagran Prakashan (up 3.10%), TV Today Network (up 2.22%), TV18 Network Broadcast (up 1.79%) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) (up 1.03%) advanced.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Infosys fell 0.47%. The IT major reinforced its commitment to support UK's economic recovery and growth by announcing plans to hire 1,000 workers in the country over the next three years.
JSW Energy lost 0.12%. The company said its subsidiary has signed a power purchase agreement for 540 MW of blended wind capacity with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). In September last year, JSW Energy had informed that JSW Future Energy (formerly JSW Solar) (100% subsidiary of JSW Energy) had received letter of awards for total blended wind capacity of 810 MW from Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) in respect of the tariff based competitive bid invited by SECI for setting up of 2500 MW ISTS-connected Blended Wind Power Projects (Tranche-IX).
Economy:
Due to slow pace of vaccinations and uncertainty around the number of those infected and dead in the second COVID-19 wave, global brokerage firm Barclays cut India's FY22 GDP growth estimate to 10% from earlier 11%. If the ongoing localised lockdowns continue till June 2021, it will lead to economic losses amounting to $38.4 billion, it said.
In a more pessimistic scenario of the pandemic not being brought under control soon and mobility restrictions continuing till August 2021, the growth can fall to 8.8%, Barclays warned. The country's economy is estimated to contract by 7.6% in FY21 as the pandemic-induced lockdowns led to chilling of economic activity, hurt jobs and demand.
Coronavirus Update:
Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 15,35,53,270 with 32,13,573 deaths. India reported 34,47,133 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 2,22,408 deaths while 1,66,13,292 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
India on Monday reported 3,57,229 fresh COVID-19 cases. With this, the cumulative caseload nears 20.3 million, according to MoHFW. In the past seven days alone, India has added 26,13,415 infections to its tally. As many as 3,438 deaths were reported. The country now has 3.44 million active cases.
The six most affected states by total cases are Maharashtra (4,771,022), Kerala (1,664,789), Karnataka (1,601,865), Uttar Pradesh (1,313,487), Tamil Nadu (1,207,112), and Delhi (1,194,552).
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