Stock Market Highlights: Sensex ends 85 points higher, Nifty reclaims 18,250; Mindtree gains 2%

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Next target for Nifty 18,500: Manish Hathiramani  

Manish Hathiramani, Proprietary Index Trader and Technical Analyst at Deen Dayal Investments, believes the next target for the Nifty is 18,500 with strong support at 17,800. "Any dip can be utilized to accumulate long positions on the index," he said. 

Lots of opportunities on buy side as long as Nifty stays above 17,889: Mehta Equities' Prashant Tapse

Prashant Tapse, Vice President (Research) at Mehta Equities, believes there are going to be opportunities aplenty on the buy side as long as the Nifty stays above 17,889. "The immediate goalpost for the Nifty is at its all-time high (18,604)," he said. 

Don't see L&T crossing Rs 2,050-2,100: Ambareesh Baliga 

Independent market expert Ambareesh Baliga doesn't see L&T shares going beyond Rs 2,050-2,100 levels. "I think that would possibly be the top for the company," he said. 

"I don't know whether it is real rerating or whether people are just picking it up because it has been one of those slightly slower moves. Throughout the last 18 months, if you see, there was one move and then it consolidated for a long time and started the second move. So people are looking for stocks that haven't really, especially in the largecaps, moved, and possibly looking at buying those," he added. 

Indecisiveness between bulls and bears, medium-term texture still positive: Kotak Securities' Shrikant Chouhan

The Nifty has formed a doji candlestick pattern that indicates indecisiveness between the bulls and the bears, according to Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail) at Kotak Securities. However, he said, the medium-term texture is still positive.

"Direction-wise, below 18,200, we can expect profit booking and after a breakdown, the chances of the index hitting 18,140-18,100 levels are bright. On the other hand, as long as the index is above 18,200, the uptrend will continue till 18,300-18,350 levels," he said. 

Strong tailwinds in largecap IT: Mithun Aswath

Mithun Aswath, Managing Partner at Kivah Advisors, said there is no doubt that strong tailwinds exist for largecap IT companies in terms of demand. "The larger companies are better placed because they can hire people more easily and their attrition levels may be are actually lower than others. However, if you just look at the numbers, we don't see potentially margin upside in some of these plays; it could be more in line with the topline growth," he said. 

If we are going to value these companies at 30 times-plus, we may have maybe about 10-15 percent upside in some of these stocks. We would need maybe even margin expansion to happen for these stocks to get rerated further. I think such opportunities may lie more in differentiated IT companies, some of which may be in the midcap space," he added.

Dips in market potential opportunities to accumulate stocks: Kivah Advisors' Mithun Aswath

Mithun Aswath, Managing Partner at Kivah Advisors, believes any dips in the market now are potential opportunities to accumulate stocks. "However, having seen the kind of run-up that we saw in the last 12-18 months, the market is going to be a lot more discerning in terms of valuations as well as the growth picture. We are pricing in some sort of upside. Only if there are surprises from here, will we see further gains in the market in the near term but as we roll over from FY23 to FY24, that is when the upside starts to reflect on the market," he said. 

Mindtree Q3 | EBIT margin exceeds Street expectation by 110 basis points

Here are some other highlights of the IT company's Q3 numbers:

--Deal wins at $358 million vs $360 million in previous quarter

--Attrition rate at 21.9% vs 17.7% in previous quarter

Mindtree Q3 | Dollar revenue at $366.4 million vs Street expectation of $368 million

Mindtree's revenue, in dollar terms, came in at $366.4 million in Q3, as against $350.1 million in the previous quarter.

Analysts in a CNBC-TV18 poll had expected the company's revenue to increase 5.1 percent sequentially to $368 million.

Mindtree Q3 | EBIT up 12.6% at Rs 528.9 crore

The IT company reported Rs 528.9 crore in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) in the December quarter, as against Rs 469.7 crore in the previous three months. 

Its EBIT margin stood at 19.2 percent in Q3 as against 18.2 percent in the previous quarter. 

Analysts in a CNBC-TV18 poll had estimated the company's EBIT at Rs 500 crore and EBIT margin at 18.1 percent. 

Mindtree Q3 | Net profit up 9.7% QoQ at Rs 437.5 crore, beats Street estimates

After the market hours, Mindtree reported a net profit of Rs 437.5 crore for the December quarter, up 9.7 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Its revenue came in at Rs 2,750 crore for the October-December period, as against Rs 2,586.2 crore for the quarter ended September 2021.

Analysts in a CNBC-TV18 poll had expected the IT company to report a net profit of Rs 430 crore over revenue of Rs 2,760 crore. 

Market At Close | Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Sun Pharma, Coal India, L&T top blue-chip gainers

Divi's Labs, Cipla, UPL, Indian Oil and Hindalco were also among the gainers. On the other hand, Wipro, Asian Paints, HCL Tech, HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank were the worst hit among the 14 laggards in the Nifty50 pack. 

Here are some highlights of the January 13 session: 

--Metal stocks lift indices, financial scrips drag 

--Sensex, Nifty extend gains to 5th day

--Nifty Bank slips 258 pts to 38,470; midcap index gains 206 pts to 31,997

--Wipro top Nifty loser, down 6% after muted Q3

--TCS, Infosys up 1% after Q3 beat 

--Metal gains most among sectoral indices; Nifty Metal up 3%

--Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Sun Pharma, Coal India, L&T top Nifty gainers

--HCL Tech falls 1%; Mindtree rises 3% ahead of earnings 

--Polycab, JSPL, Tata ELXSI, Bandhan, Atul, Trent top midcap gainers

--Realty sees profit booking after Wednesday’s surge; Nifty Realty down 1%

--Motherson, Oberoi, KPIT Tech, Ramco Cements, Havells top midcap losers

--Market breadth neutral; advance-decline ratio at 1:1

Here's how the 30-scrip basket fared:

Closing Bell | Sensex up 85 points at 61,235, Nifty50 reclaims 18,250

The 30-scrip Sensex index ended a choppy session 85.3 points or 0.1 percent higher at 61,235.3, and the broader Nifty50 benchmark settled at 18,257.8, up 45.5 points or 0.3 percent from its previous close.

Gains in oil & gas and metal shares were offset by losses in financial and consumer goods stocks. (Read more on the closing bell)

Crude oil futures dip on weak demand

Crude oil prices on Thursday fell Rs 6 to Rs 6,107 per barrel after participants cut their positions. On the Multi Commodity Exchange, crude oil for the January delivery dropped by Rs 6, or 0.1 per cent, to Rs 6107 per barrel with a business volume of 9,625 lots. Analysts said the fall in crude oil futures was due to the trimming of positions by traders amid a weak spot demand. Globally, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading 0.01 per cent lower at USD 82.63 per barrel.

Meanwhile, international benchmark Brent crude was quoting 0.05 per cent higher to trade at USD 84.71 per barrel in New York.

Market Watch | Frontline IT company remains relatively strong: Deven Choksey of KRChoksey

Results have come more or less on the expected line of all the companies and as we have been expecting around 20 percent kind of growth possibility for Infosys it is getting now validated with the management revising the guidance upwards to 20 percent. In case of TCS the numbers have been pretty decent and if I look at the order inflow and the pipeline that they have both Infosys and TCS has I guess this is giving a very good clarity about the growth going forward. At least next four or five years’ visibility is looking at absolute robust. Given the fact that the customers on the ground are basically going for a complete digital-first approach. I guess I think both these companies are very well positioned. Though on one side, we have been slightly sceptical about meeting the margin targets, I guess they have done reasonably well in meeting the margin targets and also in meeting the attrition by way of recruiting fresh talent. So all in all put together frontline IT company remains relatively strong. In my viewpoint, I think they have the bandwidth, which is relatively larger, and they could possibly meet the challenges of the time, particularly the attrition related and delivery commitment related so they deserve better value. Maybe the current market price is adjusting because ahead of the results the stocks are priced in a certain amount of growth. Maybe I think post results, we will only see the selective buying taking place. I like companies like Infosys, from an investment point of view.”