Share Market updates: Sensex rises 86 points, Nifty ends above 16,600; Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's top gainers

Good afternoon!

Benchmarks indices closed higher for the third straight session on Thursday amid an overall bullish trend in Asian equities. Sensex started in the green and zoomed 1,595.14 points or 2.91 per cent intraday to 56,242.47. 

However, it pared some gains during the fag-end of trade amid weak European markets and a rise in oil prices. Sensex closed at 55,464.39, rising 817.06 points or 1.50 per cent. Nifty jumped 249.55 points or 1.53 per cent to close at 16,594.90.

What's next? Here's a look at the latest updates of the market today!

3:37 pm:  Sensex rises 85 points to 55,550 and Nifty gains 35 points to 16,630.

3:07 pm: Market check

Sensex rises 67 points to 55531 and Nifty gains 36 points to 16,631.

2:38 pm: BSE mid cap and small indices rise 37 points and 206 points, respectively  in the afternoon session.

2:27 PM: BSE market cap rises to Rs 252.68 lakh crore. Market breadth is positive with 2037 shares rising against 1242  stocks falling on BSE.

1:33 pm: Market check

 Sensex trades 104 points higher at 55,568 and Nifty gains 17 points to 16,612.

1:20 pm: BMW acquires Alpina brand after working together for 60 years

German manufacturer of luxury vehicles and motorcycles BMW Group, on Friday, announced the acquisition of its long-term tuning partner Alpina brands, which is responsible for some of the most iconic and coolest modified BMWs around the world. BMW's Alpina tuned models, in terms of power output and performance, have traditionally been positioned halfway between the BMW's standard cars and its high-performance M branded versions.

 1:10 pm: Top gainers and losers

Top Sensex gainers are Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's and PowerGrid, rising up to 3.46% in afternoon session. Top losers are Nestle India, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, M&M  and HUL falling up to 1.44%

12:40 pm: Market check

Sensex rises 178 points to 55,643 and Nify gains 57 points to 16,651.

12: 30 pm: Nomura on Colgate Palmolive

has assigned a buy call to the company with a target price of Rs 1,700. Appointment of Prabha Narasimhan as new MD & CEO is a first one for top management from outside which indicates a fresh perspective, the brokerage said. "While new appointment would drive up expectations, we remain cautious on medium-term growth prospect," it added.

12:15 pm: JP Morgan on Colgate Palmolive

JP Morgan has a neutral call on Colgate Palmolive with a target price of Rs 1,580 on BSE. The brokerage said an external hire for the CEO position is a bit of an unanticipated move. Key priorities of the company should be to accelerate revenue growth in oral care business and strengthening non-oral care portfolio.

11:40 am: Market check

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 217 points higher at 55,682.26 and Nifty was up 61 points to 16,656.10.

Sun Pharma and Bajaj Finserv were the top gainers on Sensex, advancing over 2 per cent.

11:20 am: Passenger vehicle sales down 6% in February: SIAM

Passenger vehicle sales in India fell 6 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to 2,62,984 units in February from 2,81,380 units sold in the same month last year, auto industry body SIAM said on Wednesday.

As per the latest data by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), two-wheeler sales stood at 1,037,994 units in February 2022, while three-wheeler sales came in at 27,039 units in the said month.

11:00 am: Rupee surges 16 paise to 76.27 against US dollar in early trade

The rupee advanced 16 paise to 76.27 against the US dollar in the opening trade on Friday, supported by positive domestic equities and a pullback in crude oil prices.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 76.34 against the US dollar, then gained momentum and touched 76.27, registering a gain of 16 paise from the previous close.

On Thursday, the rupee had appreciated by 19 paise to close at 76.43 against the US dollar. The BJP on Thursday stormed back to power in Uttar Pradesh, and also retained Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, while Arvind Kejriwal's AAP scripted a stellar victory in Punjab, winning a three-fourth majority.

10:40 am: Tata Steel shares gain over 2% after subsidiary inks share purchase pact for buying NINL 

Shares of Tata Steel rose over 2 per cent in early trade today after the government signed share purchase agreement with Tata Steel Long Products for selling Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL) for Rs 12,100 crore.

The shares touched an intraday high of Rs 1,339, rising 2.39 per cent on the BSE. The stock has gained 6.17 per cent in the last two days.

The stock is trading higher than 5 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages. It was the top Sensex gainer today.

10:20 am: Colgate shares in focus

Shares of Colgate India were trading higher after the leading oral care products maker appointed former HUL Executive Director Prabha Narasimhan as its Managing Director and CEO.

The present Managing Director and CEO Ram Raghavan is promoted to the global Enterprise Oral Care role for parent firm.

10:00 am: Crypto markets plummet, all top tokens in red

Cryptocurrency markets tanked on Friday after rallying in anticipation of US President Joe Biden's executive order on cryptocurrencies and Dubai regulations. The rally, which has now ended, is reflected on the top tokens that are all in red. 

The global market cap dipped by a significant 4.53 per cent in the last 24 hours and is at $1.72 trillion as of 9:30 AM IST, CoinMarketCap data showed.

9:50 am: Back in the green

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty opened on a muted note on Friday tracking weak global markets but within minutes recovered the lost ground to trade with significant gains.

The 30-share BSE Sensex opened weak and declined 414.44 points to 55,049.95 in opening deals. But, within minutes, it pared all its losses and jumped 268.39 points to 55,732.78.

9:16 am: Market opening

Equity benchmark Sensex opened 345 points lower at 55,118.67 and Nifty fell 105 points to 16,489.10 amid weak global cues.

HDFC was the top loser on Sensex, declining over 2 per cent, followed by Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank and M&M.

Tata Steel and Sun Pharma were among the top gainers.

9:05 am: Pre-market comment by Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS, Hem Securities 

India's equity benchmark is expected to follow the global market's close and SGX Nifty's inclinations and open lower. The global stock market tumbled yesterday as key peace talks between Russia and Ukraine came to a halt, exacerbated by a worsening growth outlook. 

The US stock market also fell, with technology stocks leading the way, after statistics revealed that consumer prices rose in February, bolstering the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates later this month. 

Following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Goldman Sachs Group Inc declared that it will cease operations in Russia, becoming the first major Wall Street bank to do so. After reaching multi-year and record highs, commodity prices, particularly oil and industrial metals, have begun to fall, which may assist to calm market sentiment in the coming days. 

As a result of the BJP's triumph, the market gained confidence. However, with the ECB and US Federal Reserve meetings coming up in the coming days, caution is advised.

On the technical front, immediate support and resistance in the Nifty are 16,200 and 16,800. For the Bank Nifty, immediate support and resistance are at 33,500 and 35,500.

8:45 am: FII and DII action

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,981.15 crore on March 10, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 945.71 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.

8:40 am: Global updates

Wall Street resumed its slide on Thursday, ending in the red as inflation hit a four-decade high, cementing expectations that the US Federal Reserve would hike key interest rates at the conclusion of next week's monetary policy meeting to prevent the economy from overheating.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 112.18 points, or 0.34%, to 33,174.07, the S&P 500 lost 18.36 points, or 0.43%, to 4,259.52 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 125.58 points, or 0.95%, to 13,129.96.

Shares in Asia-Pacific slipped in Friday morning trade, tracking losses on Wall Street as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to keep investors cautious.

The Nikkei 225 in Japan fell more than 1% in early trade, shedding some of its nearly 4% gain on Thursday. The Topix index slipped 1.23%. In South Korea, the Kospi dipped 0.78%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.4% in morning trade.

8:30 am: SGX Nifty

The Indian equity market is likely to open flat today as SGX Nifty was trading 9 points lower at 16,514.

The Singapore Stock Exchange is considered to be the first indication of the opening of the Indian market.

8:15 am: Market on Thursday

Benchmarks indices closed higher for the third straight session on Thursday amid an overall bullish trend in Asian equities. Sensex started in the green and zoomed 1,595.14 points or 2.91 per cent intraday to 56,242.47. However, it pared some gains during the fag-end of trade amid weak European markets and a rise in oil prices. Sensex closed at 55,464.39, rising 817.06 points or 1.50 per cent.

Nifty jumped 249.55 points or 1.53 per cent to close at 16,594.90. Hindustan Unilever Limited, Tata Steel, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Nestle and Maruti Suzuki India were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 5.17 per cent.

Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Tata Consultancy Services were the only Sensex losers, falling up to 1.28%.

BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 244 points and 314 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, banking shares were the top gainers with the BSE bankex rising 767 points to 39,488. Consumer durables and capital goods shares also gained with their BSE indices rising 646 points and 371 points, respectively. BSE auto index too zoomed 406 points to 22,845.