Pharma cues from Parliament spurs largecaps; stock market gains on short covering

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By S Jha

New Delhi, July 20: In a flat six months, ITC has given a return of almost 48 per cent. ITC has become the seventh Indian firm to cross Rs 6 lakh crore valuation. The last six months have been phenomenal for ITC, which in the immediate two years since the pandemic was a subject of ridicule for not moving on the bourses.

But ITC has delivered stunning performance, beating even some of the fancied IT firms. ITC is gaining the market share for its diversified bouquet of goods sold, from flour to sugar. At the same time the buzz of the demerger of the hotel business also has helped the scrip gain on the bourses. Besides. ITC also has an unlisted IT firm, which is headquartered in Kolkata, and the consumer goods behemoth one day is expected to unlock values for the investors. ITC on Thursday gained almost three per cent, and it was the top gainer on Nifty.

The indices had gone into the weekly expiry today on bullish note. Trend has some similar pattern in recent days, with indices gaining strongly in the afternoon session apparently on account of the actions of the fund houses.

While Nifty went into red after Reliance Industries showed impact of the demerger of the financial business, but the Bank Nifty held grounds throughout the session. In the first hald, SBI carried the show from yesterday, and sharply climbed as the scrip rose to the level of Rs 610 from Rs 610. The run in the SBI was part of the secular rally in the PSU banks, which has also been stated earlier by The Raisina Hills, as the likes of Canara Bank, Punjab and National Bank and others gained strongly.

The Bank Nifty in the post noon session went buzzing, as trending move came on the back of strong actions in the counters of ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank – the two most underperforming scrips in the Bank Nifty. They powered Bank Nifty to almost gain 580 points during the day. The 46000 Bank Nifty strike premium last Saturday was Rs 35 for the July 20 expiry, which today zoomed to over Rs 170, showing the intensity of the rally in the Bank Nifty.

Meanwhile, the government is going to bring an amendment to the Drugs Regulations, which will give greater authority to the Central regulators against the current practice of the state level approvals for drugs for domestic use and exports. This trigger appeared to have kicked the largecap in the pharma sector to go trending, as the likes of Dr Reddy’s Laboratory, Cipla, Sun Pharmaceuticals, and a few more gained strongly today.