Market Movers: ITC jumps; autos, airlines attempt rebound; 20 stocks turn overbought

NEW DELHI: Domestic equity indices gained for the third straight session on Thursday amid hope of economic recovery as the government continued to ease restrictions.

The gains were, however, capped by fag-end profit booking amid concerns over a rapid rise in Covid-19 cases in India.

Among the blue chips. ITC jumped over 7 per cent after the company’s chairman said business was gradually getting back to normal. Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto gained 2-5 per cent, pushing the benchmark indices higher.

We tried to capture some of the key trends from Thursday’s session:

Airline stocks fly high
As the government allowed airlines to resume operations from May 25, investors lined up to buy shares of listed carriers. InterGlobe Aviation, which runs IndiGo, jumped 7.28 per cent to Rs 978.25, while its rival SpiceJet hit the upper circuit after rising 4.88 per cent to Rs 42.95. Defunct Jet Airways shares jumped 4.91 per cent to Rs 20.30.

Auto stocks race ahead
Auto stocks were in high demand as business slowly started getting back on track. Ashok Leyland jumped 6.34 per cent to Rs 46.10 and was the biggest gainer in the Nifty Auto index that added 2.61 per cent. Maruti Suzuki, Bharat Forge, Hero Moto and Exide Industries Rose 3-5 per cent. Bajaj Auto, which beat Street estimates in March quarter earnings, gained 2.71 per cent to Rs 2,627.

Insider trading: Asian Hotels, Max India
Promoters of Max India pledged 5 lakh shares, which resulted in a 4 per cent drop in stock to Rs 53.75. Meanwhile, there was an invocation of pledge on 2.55 lakh of Asian Hotels (North) shares, which was followed by a 5.75 per cent fall in share price to Rs 50. Among other transactions, Drupad Shah of ICICI Bank acquired 10,000 shares via ESOS.

92 stocks @52 week lows
Over 90 stocks crashed to their 52-week lows, most of which were midcaps and smallcaps. They included Brigade Enterprises, Chennai Petroleum, Cholamandalam Finance, Indiabulls INtegrated Services, Lemon Tree Hotels, Sunteck Realty and Tejas Networks, among others.

Stocks that gave ‘buy’ signals
As many as 85 stocks gave buy signals on BSE as per MACD indicator. They included IndianOil, Birlasoft, Global Vectra, Minda Corporation, Kajaria Ceramics, Kalpataru Power, ACC, Sterling and Wilson and Crompton Greaves Consumer, among others.

Stocks that hit upper circuits
Over 240 stocks on BSE rose to their upper daily limit set by the exchange. They included AU SFB, Quess Corps, Shilpa Medicare, Balrampur Chini, PC Jeweller, Delta Corps, Edelweiss Financials, Lemon Tree and Suzlon Energy, among others.

20 stocks turn overbought
The RSI heat map showed 20 stocks turned overbought during Thursday’s session thanks to heavy demand in last few days. This included United Spirits, Andhra Cement, Escorts, Taneja Aerospace, Alembic Pharma, Tata Communications, Mishtann Foods and Salasar Techno, among others.

Where is Nifty headed?
Market witnessed volatile trading session on account of weekly expiry. The global market cues too were not much encouraging, and they witnessed tepid action throughout the day, said a Dalal Street analyst. “We are of the view that the market will remain volatile in the short run. Technically, for the next few trading sessions, 9,025 should act as a trend decider level, above which we can expect an uptrend continuation wave up to 9,150-9,250. However, trading below 9,025 could possibly open another correction till 8,880,” said Shrikant Chouhan of Kotak Securities.