Here are the key highlights from today's trading session:

1. Sensex & Nifty close higher while Nifty Bank slips

2. Midcap outperforms frontliners with index gaining nearly 1%

3. Midcap gains keep market breadth in favour of advances

4. Sensex gains 127 points to 40,686 & Nifty 34 points to 11,930

5. Nifty Bank slips 6 points to 24,478 while midcap index gains 135 points to 17,306

6. Autos gain on an expectation of healthy festive sales; Maruti Suzuki & M&M top gainers

7. Metal stocks higher on hope of US stimulus, Tata Steel surges 3%

8. Cement shares see profit-booking after an impressive Q2 for most stocks; UltraTech Cement down 2%

9. Aviation stocks move higher on improved demand; SpiceJet climbs 9%

10. Aditya Birla Fashion announcing issuance of preference shares to Flipkart at Rs 205/share helps stock gain 8%

11. SBI Cards slips more than 5% as asset quality worsens; Q2 GNPA at 4.29%

12. Biocon falls 3% after reporting earnings lower than expectations

13. NSE advance-decline line ratio at 2:1

Market this week:

1. Sensex & Nifty regain losses of last week, up 1.7% and 1.4% respectively

2. Nifty Midcap Index gains 3% & Nifty Bank 4% this week

3. Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, NTPC, Axis Bank & Tata Motors top gainers this week

4. Britannia, Hero MotoCorp, Divi’s Labs, Eicher Motors, SBI Life & UPL top Nifty losers this week

Oct 23, 2020 3:58 PM

Closing Bell: Sensex gains 127 points, Nifty settles above 11,900 led by auto stocks

The Indian equity market ended higher Friday led by gains in auto, IT and metal stocks amid positive global cues.

The Sensex ended 127.01 points or 0.31 percent higher at 40,685.50 while the Nifty gained 33.90 points or 0.28 percent to close at 11,930.35.

Broader indices supported the upside momentum with Nifty Smallcap and Nifty Midcap indices gaining over 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

Among sectors, Nifty Auto rallied the most over 2 percent followed by Nifty IT, Nifty Media, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Metals while Nifty Pharma and Nifty Realty ended in the red.

Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Tata Steel, PowerGrid Corporation and Bajaj Auto led gains among Nifty constituents while UltraTech Cement, HCL Technologies, Hindustan Unillever were the top index losers.

Oct 23, 2020 3:40 PM

Adani Electricity Mumbai extends interest-free EMI facility for a limited period for the customers starting from October 23-30

Oct 23, 2020 3:29 PM

Stock Update: Asian Granito's share price surges over 6 percent to Rs 280.75 per share on the NSE after the firm's board approved a 5:1 stock split and fund raising of up to Rs 400 crore via debt and equity.

Oct 23, 2020 3:21 PM

Gland Pharma IPO: Shanghai’s Fosun Pharma owned, a B2B Injectables player, Gland Pharma showcases its leadership by the maintenance of gross margins at 58 percent compared to an industry average of 40 percent, a result of in-house API capacities. The B2B model covers IP-led, technology transfer, and contract manufacturing models, complemented by a B2C model in Indian market leveraging. The US market which accounts for the majority of sales is being driven by 265 ANDAs (100 of which are owned by Gland Pharma) filled as of 31st March 2020, 204 have been approved, explained Anish Moonka, Head of Research, JST Investments.

The consistent compliance track record allows them to sell to over 60 countries. Being already present in sterile injectables, oncology, and ophthalmics, they are working on entering complex injectables such as peptides, long-acting injectables, suspensions, and hormonal products. The huge entry barriers of their capabilities, lack of significant competition, Injectables dominating the Drug shortages list, nominal R&D spends & a solid balance sheet should bode well for the company, added Moonka further.

Oct 23, 2020 3:06 PM

Burger King files for IPO | Burger King India, a quick service restaurant chain, has filed draft papers with markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to raise Rs 542 crore through fresh issuance of shares in the IPO.

Oct 23, 2020 2:45 PM

IDBI Bank reports profit against loss on a year-to-year basis.

Oct 23, 2020 2:30 PM

Rupee Update: The Indian currency ended slightly lower on Friday. The rupee settled at 73.59 against the US dollar as compared to Thursday's close of 73.54.

Oct 23, 2020 2:21 PM

Second round of stimulus necessary for growth to sustain: Hexaware Technologies

A second round of stimulus is a necessary condition for growth to sustain, R Srikrishna, CEO of Hexaware Technologies told CNBC-TV18.

“If there is no stimulus, I think there will be fairly secular impact across industries on growth,” he said.

However, Srikrishna added that the sector is in for a new and sustained phase of growth once the dust on COVID fully settles.

According to Srikrishna, the travel-transportation segment is still a few quarters away before it fully recovers. “Travel-transportation is I think into 2022 before their revenues come back to pre-COVID levels, maybe mid-2022,” he said.

“Tech may lead that recovery by couple of quarters, but even then we are talking about 5-6 quarters for tech spending recovery fully in that sector,” he added. Read more

Oct 23, 2020 2:15 PM

Upcoming IPO: Burger King India, a quick service restaurant chain, has filed draft papers with markets regulator SecuritIes and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to raise Rs 542 crore through fresh issuance of shares in the IPO.

According to the addendum to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed with SEBI on Wednesday, Burger King’s IPO comprises fresh issue of equity shares aggregating up to Rs 542 crore and an offer for sale of up to 6 crore equity shares by QSR Asia, the promoter.Net proceeds from the fresh issue are proposed to be utilized for funding the rollout of new company-owned Burger King Restaurants and for general corporate purposes.

The initial share-sale is being managed by Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, CLSA India, Edelweiss Financial Services and JM Financial.

Oct 23, 2020 2:06 PM

Latha Venkatesh is In Conversation with Expenditure Secy TV Somanathan. When asked about the next set of stimulus measures, he says 'It will come when it comes'

Oct 23, 2020 1:53 PM

Earnings Impact: Shares of Mphasis jumped over 4 percent as the company reported a 9.4 percent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 299.2 crore for the September 2020 quarter.

The company’s net profit stood at Rs 273.3 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing.

Revenue from operations grew 12.8 percent to Rs 2,435.4 crore in the reported quarter from Rs 2,158.1 crore in the year-ago period.

The company said it has registered $360 million worth of total contract value (TCV) wins in direct international business, of which 73 percent was in new-generation services.

Oct 23, 2020 1:40 PM

Earnings Impact: Biocon's shares slip nearly 3 percent to Rs 418.30 per share on the NSE after the firm reported a 23.01 percent fall in its consolidated net profit to Rs 195.4 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, mainly on account of higher expenses. It had posted a net profit of Rs 253.8 crore for the July-September quarter previous fiscal.

Its consolidated total income stood at Rs 1,760.3 crore for the quarter under consideration. It was Rs 1,605.7 crore for the same period a year ago, said the company. ”Our profitability was impacted on account of higher R&D expenses, staff costs, other expenses and forex losses.

However, our core EBITDA margins stood at a healthy 32 percent, indicating sound operational performance,” Biocon Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said.

The R&D expense of the company for the quarter ended September 30, 2020, was at Rs 148 crore as against Rs 104 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal, Biocon said.

Oct 23, 2020 1:16 PM

Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals shares rally 15% on robust Sept quarter results

The share price of Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals rallied up to 15 percent on Friday after the company reported a strong set of numbers for the September quarter.

The stock gained as much as 15 percent to touch its 52-week high at Rs 329 per share on the NSE. However, the stock pared gains to trade 8.5 percent higher at Rs 311 apiece, at 10:27 am.

The company's net profit jumped 27.7 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 142 crore as against Rs 110.8 crore in the September quarter last year.

The top-line climbed 12.77 percent to Rs 1,213 crore as compared to Rs 1,076 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.