Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex edges higher, Nifty around 15,700; metals, pharma stocks lead

GameStop share gains as traders await quarterly report

GameStop’s stock climbed 3% on Wednesday ahead of its quarterly results after the close, with a cult following of individual investors looking for progress in turning around the struggling videogame retailer following this year’s rally in its share price. At a brief annual shareholders meeting ahead of the report, GameStop top shareholder Ryan Cohen, the billionaire co-founder of online pet supplies retailer Chewy, was elected chairman. GameStop announced his nomination in April. “As my dad would say, buckle up,” Cohen told shareholders. GameStop’s volatile shares have nearly doubled in the past month, and they are now just 11% below their closing high in January. That was when a massive surge driven by investors on Reddit’s wallstreetbets trading forum made the stock the most traded on the U.S. market for several days. More here

Indiabulls Housing shares jump 12% in 3 session after it inks co-lending pact with Central Bank of India

Shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance have risen over 12 percent in 3 sessions high after the lender inked a co-lending pact with the Central Bank of India (CBI). The stock, today, hit its 52-week high of Rs 277.90 per share on the BSE. The stock, which was up 6 percent in today’s session, rose over 4 percent in yesterday’s trade. Under this arrangement, Indiabulls Housing Finance and IIFL Home Finance will originate and process retail home loans while Central Bank of India will take into its book 80 percent of the housing loan under direct assignment transactions, the lender said in separate regulatory filings.

Expect double-digit volume growth in Q1, says Sanjay Gupta of Star Cement

Star Cement posted a subdued set of Q4 earnings. Operating profit was down around 16 percent and margins have contracted to come in at 17 percent this quarter. On sales volume, Sanjay Gupta, CEO of Star Cement said, “In FY21, the volumes have been muted largely because of few developments which have taken place. In the north-east, we faced two major bridge damages from November to January, so it took a lot of time in terms of repairing those bridges and resuming our supply of clinker. Largely, our clinker plants are based out of Meghalaya so that impacted the volumes. The grinding plant at Siliguri actually took time because of the on-going pandemic and we could only start it on January 16th. So, largely in the initial 1-2 months we had teething problems.” More here

GAIL India shares gain after strong Q4 earnings; should investors buy, sell or hold?

The share price of GAIL India rose over 2 percent in early trade on Thursday after the company reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. The company’s net profit in the quarter ended March 2021 rose 28.3 percent to Rs 1,908 crore from Rs 1,487.3 crore in the December 2020 quarter. Revenue during the quarter fell 0.1 percent to Rs 15,449 crore from 15,454.3 crore, QoQ.

Global brokerage JPMorgan maintained an Overweight rating on the stock and raised the target to Rs 197 per share on strong Q4FY21 performance. “GAIL’s gas trading segment reported EBITDA after loss for three quarters, while near-term oil price strength should support earnings,” JPMorgan said. Jefferies maintained a Hold rating with the target at Rs 150 per share. It raised FY22 EPS estimate by 6 percent. Petchem volumes and realisations surprised positively, Jefferies said. More here

Bata India shares rise over 6% post Q4 results; Axis Securities upgrades stock

Shares of Bata India jumped over 6 percent after the company’s March quarter numbers were in line with estimates. India’s largest shoemaker Bata India reported a 23.3 percent fall in consolidated net profit at Rs 29.47 crore Q4 as against Rs 38.40 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations declined to Rs 589.90 crore during the quarter under review from Rs 620.57 crore in the corresponding quarter Q4FY20. The stock rose as much as 6.4 percent to its day’s high of Rs 1,657.50 per share. Post the earnings, Axis Securities upgraded the stock to ‘add’ from ‘reduce’ and raised its target to Rs 1,700 per share from Rs 1,550 earlier. It also added that bata better placed versus competitors due to its strong balance sheet. It has a net cash surplus of over Rs 1000 crore in FY21.

Vehicle registrations fall 55% MoM to 5.35 lakh units in May: FADA

The second wave of COVID-19 and strict restrictions in most states have hit the automobile retail sales hard. The total vehicle registrations in May 2021 fell by 54.79 percent sequentially as sales in all categories including two-wheelers, three-wheelers, passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and tractors declined significantly. According to the data released by Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) on Thursday, total vehicle registrations in May 2021 fell 54.79 percent to 5,35,855 units as against 11,85,374 units in April 2021. The sales were 70.69 percent lower when compared to 18,22,566 units sold in May 2019. Two-wheeler sales in May declined by 53 percent while those of three-wheelers plunged 76 percent, MoM. Passenger vehicle registrations declined by 59 percent and commercial vehicle registrations fell 66 percent, MoM. Tractor sales too declined 57 percent on a sequential basis. More here

Market Watch: Nischal Maheshwari, CEO Institutional Equities & Advisory of Centrum Broking

On Reliance

We have a strong buy on the stock. Our call continues to remain on the long-term where we continue to believe that this is going to be a phenomenal play as far as technology is concerned. We have always looked at Reliance as a technology play and the other parts of the business are becoming smaller for them. Though Reliance has underperformed in the last quarter, it is turning around both the businesses – retail and oil and gas. So it looks interesting to me at these prices.

On TCS

Hold on to TCS. I wouldn’t advise people to buy TCS at this price.

Opening Bell: Sensex opens nearly 200 points higher, Nifty nears 15,700; IT, Energy stocks lead

Indian indices opened higher, tracking gains in Asian peers, boosted by heavweights RIL, Infosys and HDFC twins. All sectors were also in the green contributing to the rise with Nifty Energy, Nifty IT and Nifty Metal leading. At 9:18 am, the Sensex was trading 175 points higher at 52,117 while the Nifty rose 50 points to 15,685. Broader markets outperformed benchamrks with the midcap and smallcap indices up around a percent each. On the Nifty50 index, JSW Steel, Tata Consumer, Shree Cement, Wipro and Adani Ports were the top gainers while ONGC, ICICI Bank, Britannia, NEstle and Axis Bank led the losses.

Blackstone-backed Sona Comstar to launch IPO on June 14

Auto component manufacturer Sona Comstar will launch an initial public offer (IPO) on June 14 at a price band of Rs 285-291 per share. The issue will close on June 16. The Rs 5,550-crore offer comprises a fresh issue of Rs 300 crore and an offer for sale of up to Rs 5,250 crore by Singapore VII Topco III Pte Ltd. The company has reserved 75 percent portion of the total issue size for qualified institutional buyers, 10 percent for retail, and 15 percent for non-institutional investors. The issue market lot size is 51 shares and a retail-individual investor can apply for up to 13 lots. Blackstone will sell half of its holding and will own a little over 33 percent in Sona Comstar. More here

No change in petrol, diesel prices today

The oil marketing companies (OMCs) kept fuel prices unchanged on Thursday after increasing them on Wednesday. Accordingly, the price of petrol and diesel was static at Rs 95.56 and Rs 86.47 per litre in the national capital, as per Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s largest fuel retailer. In Mumbai, the petrol price was unchanged at Rs 101.76 per litre on Thursday. The cost of diesel was stable at Rs 93.85 a litre.

Dollar stuck near 5-month low as caution reigns ahead of US CPI, ECB tests

The dollar continued to hover near a five-month low versus major peers on Thursday as investors looked to key US inflation data and a European Central Bank meeting later in the day to potentially set the direction for currency markets. Investors have adopted a wait-and-see attitude all week, sucking volatility from the market and leaving major currencies mostly range-bound. The dollar index has fluctuated narrowly around the psychologically important 90-level and was last at 90.137. The euro rose to a one-week high at USD 1.2218 on Wednesday only to finish little changed, and was essentially flat at USD 1.2178 in Asia. The yen traded at 109.62 per dollar, also little changed from Wednesday and near the middle of the 109.19-110.325 range of the past two weeks. More here

Asian shares hold range as investors eye U.S. CPI

Asian shares edged higher but held their recent trading range on Thursday as investors focussed on U.S. inflation data and the risk of an upside surprise that could prompt the Federal Reserve to start tapering its massive stimulus. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan were marginally higher at 700.6 points, but stayed in the 698-712 points range it has traded in since late May. Japan’s Nikkei and Australia’s benchmark shares rose 0.4% each. Chinese shares gained with the blue-chip index up 0.9%

Open to IPO for Flipkart but no specific timeline, says Walmart

US retail giant Walmart has said it is “open to an IPO” for its Indian e-commerce arm Flipkart but there is “no specific timeline” for the share sale. Both Flipkart and payment app PhonePe continue to do well, Walmart International President and CEO Judith McKenna said while speaking at the DB Access Global Consumer Conference on June 7. “We always made it clear from the day we made the acquisition or the investment, that we would be open to an IPO,” said McKenna. However, she noted that there is no specific timeline for the IPO. More here

First up, here is quick catchup of what happened in the markets on Wednesday

Indian indices pared gains to end lower on Wednesday as all key sectors witnessed broad-based selling with auto, banking and metals dragging the most. The Sensex ended 334 points lower at 51,941 while the Nifty lost 105 points to settle at 15,635. Broader markets were also lower for the day with the midcap index down 0.6 percent and smallcap index down 1.3 percent. On the Nifty50 index, Powergrid, SBI Life, NTPC, Titan and Divis Labs gained the most while Tata Motors, Adani Ports, Shree Cements, L&T and IOC led the losses.

Welcome to CNBC-TV18’s Market Live Blog

Good morning, readers! I am Pranati Deva from the market’s desk of CNBC-TV18. Welcome to our market blog, where we provide rolling live news coverage of the latest events in the stock market, business and economy. We will also get you instant reactions and guests from our stellar lineup of TV guests and in-house editors, researchers, and reporters. If you are an investor, here is wishing you a great trading day. Good luck!