Market Movers: Media stocks have field day; airlines, energy packed battered; 300 stocks hit upper circuits

NEW DELHI: A multi-billion-dollar deal between two of the biggest business houses of the US and India lifted the sombre mood on Dalal Street, making investors richer by Rs 2.12 lakh crore on Wednesday.

The market witnessed a somewhat broadbased rally; with oil & gas major RIL and FMCG major HUL leading the surge. Banking, IT and paint stocks all gained. Some infrastructure, NBFC and power stocks ended up as laggards.

Here’s a debrief on the key movers & shakers of Wednesday’s session.

Media stocks in heavy demand
Shares from the media industry were in heavy demand, with Zee Entertainment leading the pack. The stock closed at the 20 per cent upper ceiling as it hit Rs 155. Reliance Group’s TV18 Broadcast and Network18 jumped 19.83 per cent and 9.79 per cent ahead of quarterly earnings. The Nifty Media index gained 6.65 per cent.

Airline stocks under pressure
Airline stocks continued to be under pressure even though there were reports that some airlines have started selling tickets for May third week onwards. InterGlobe Aviation fell 4.22 per cent to Rs 967.90 while its rival SpiceJet shed 3.60 per cent to Rs 44.20.

Broader market lagged
Activity in the broader market was relatively less intense than that on the blue chip counters. Nifty Smallcap index edged 0.52 per cent higher while Nifty Midcap index added 0.75 per cent against a 2.29 per cent rise in Nifty50. Broadest benchmark Nifty500 gained 1.87 per cent.

Energy names battered
Oil and gas explorers continued to slide, as prices of crude oil remained under pressure in the international market. ONGC fell 5.63 per cent to Rs 65.63. Gujarat State Petronet, IGL, HPCL slipped 1-2 per cent.

300 stocks hit upper circuit limits
Heavy buying in Hathway Cable & Datacom, TV18 Broadcast, Amara Raja Batteries, Graphite India, Jubilant Foodworks, Future Consumer, Reliance Capital, HFCL and 292 others sent them to their upper ceiling during the session.

230 stocks slump to lower ceiling
Mass dumping by traders pushed Venky’s, Aavas Financiers, Sobha, IDFC, PC Infra, PC Jeweller, Suzlon Energy and Tejas Network, along with about 220 other names to their lower limits.

85 stocks at 52-week low
Continued battering forced as many as 85 stocks to their 12-month lows during the session. They included Aditya Birla Fashion, Bajaj Finance, Godrej Industries, Lemon Tree hotels, Quess Corps and RBL Bank, among others.

Look who is overbought?
More pharma names entered the overbought zone according to the RSI indicator. Glenmark Pharma, Brooks Labs, Biopac India, Kimia Biosciences all crossed above the 70 mark on the indicator. The list also included Reliance Infra, Jain Irrigation, Colgate, Graphite India and Career Point, among others.

Where is Nifty headed?
For the medium term, the index has given strong indications of an uptrend continuation towards the 9,600-9,800 levels. “Any correction in the short term should be used to accumulate; support is seen at 8,800 level. Expect volatility to remain high as is seen in global markets,” said Sahaj Agrawal, Head of Research- Derivatives at Kotak Securities. He said pharma stocks should continue to trade with a positive bias; while metals and bank stocks can be accumulated on meaningful corrections.