Sensex up 100 pts, Nifty tops 17,900; Nalco falls 3%, HPCL 2%

Benchmark indices started in the green on Thursday amid supportive global cues. The S&P BSE Sensex was trading with a gain of 134 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 60,239 in early deals, while the Nifty50 was atop 17,900 levels.

HCL Tech, Titan Company, Wipro, Nestle India, L&T, maruti Suzuki, and Tech Mahindra led the Sensex gainers, rising between 0.5 per cent and 1.7 per cent.

On the downside, Asian Paints, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, and SBI fell the most, down up to 1.2 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and Smallcap indices edged up to 0.2 per cent higher.

Sectorally, the gains were largely across-the-board with only the Nifty Metal and Bank indices trading with mild cuts. The Nifty IT index, meanwhile, was the top gainer, up 0.7 per cent.

Among individual stocks, shares of RailTel Corporation gained 3 per cent amid reports that the government will invite Expression of Interest (EoI) for privatising Concor this month.

Those of IIFL Wealth Management climbed 2.6 per cent as the Board is scheduled to consider stock split and issue of bonus shares in its board meeting on January 19, 2023.

Earnings today
Eighteen companies, including Infosys, Cyient, and HCL Technologies will announce their December quarter results during the day.

Bengaluru-based IT giant Infosys is expected to report muted revenue growth in the quarter due to higher furloughs and fewer large deals. Although the firm’s operating margin could improve in the range of 10-40 basis points (bps) to up to 21.9 per cent sequentially aided by a weakened rupee, lower attrition and higher optimisation. READ PREVIEW HERE

Meanwhile, HCL Technologies is likely to clock up to 6 per cent revenue growth quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to Rs 26,214 crore from Rs 22,331 crore in Q2FY23, analysts estimate. As per five brokerage estimates, analysts peg EBIT margins to see an uptick in the range of 53-60 basis points (bps) QoQ to 18.5 per cent.