Indian indices ended higher but off day's high on Thursday led by energy and metal stocks. Meanwhile, gains in the Auto, pharma and banking sectors also supported the benchmarks.
The Sensex ended 257 points higher at 51,039 while the Nifty rose 115 points to settle at 15,097. Broader markets outperformed benchmark indices with the Midcap and Smallcap indices up around 1.5 percent each.
Among sectors, the metal index surged the most, up 4 percent followed by Nifty Energy, up 3 percent. Meanwhile, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Auto added around a percent each. Nifty Bank and Nifty IT were also in the green for the day. However, Nifty Fin Services and Nifty FMCG ended the day in the red.
Here are the key stocks that moved today:
Max Financial, Axis Bank: Shares of Max Financial and Axis Bank surged on Thursday after the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) gave its nod for the acquisition of up to 12 percent stake in Max Life Insurance by Axis Bank and its subsidiaries. Shares of Max Financial Services rose over 4 percent to Rs 891 per share while Axis Bank rose as much as 2.7 percent to Rs 769 per share.
IIFL Securities: The share price of IIFL Securities surged 17 percent after the firm won the bid to acquire Demat accounts of Karvy Stock Broking. However, the stock later pared gains to settle a percent lower. The 1.1 million Demat accounts of Karvy were being held by accounts depositories NSDL and CDSL. "This is to inform you that IIFL Securities Ltd. has emerged as the successful bidder for Demat accounts held by Karvy with NSDL and CDSL. The said transfer of Demat accounts is subject to the remittance of the bid amount and submission of the necessary documents in relation thereto," IIFL Securities said in a stock filing.
Nureca: Shares of Nureca Ltd were listed at Rs 615 apiece on the National Stock Exchange, a strong premium of 53.75 percent to the issue price of Rs 400 per share. The Rs 100-crore public issue of the home healthcare and wellness products provider Nureca was subscribed 40 times between February 15-17. The retail portion was subscribed 166.65 times while the portion reserved for Qualified Institutional Buyers was subscribed 3.10 times and 31.59 times for non-institutional buyers. The stock ended 61 percent higher at Rs 645.75 per share.
Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers: Shares of Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF) rallied 20 percent after rating agency ICRA reaffirmed credit ratings of the company’s instruments and revised outlook to 'positive' from 'stable'.
Just Dial: Shares of Just Dial was locked in 20 percent upper circuit at Rs 767.40 per share after the company announced the launch of its B2B platform Jd Mart for a new wholesale experience. “B2B buyers can discover quality vendors offering a wide selection of products to choose from, spread across various categories to suit all their B2B needs,” the company said in an exchange release.
(Edited by : Pranati Deva)
