Benchmark equity indices witnessed a strong bullish rally on Friday, largely driven by optimism in the global markets. Positive US retail data boosted Wall Street indices, sending the Nasdaq up by more than 2 per cent. Domestic IT stocks also saw a surge in buying interest.
BSE Sensex climbed by over 1,330 points or 1.68 per cent, ending at 80,436. 50-stock index, NSE Nifty, also saw a robust rally and jumped by nearly 397 points or 1.65 per cent, to close at 24,541. Meanwhile, the IT sector was among the top performers, with Nifty IT index rising over 2 per cent and ending the week at 40,878.
Advertisement
"Sentiment improvements in Yen carry trade is likely to reduce the market volatility in the near term. However, investors are advised to remain cautious in the short to medium term. The focus will be on value stocks in sectors like FMCG, IT, pharma, and telecom," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
Here are the key stocks to watch on August 19:
Hero MotoCorp
The automobile company received a demand notice worth over Rs 17 crore from the GST authorities, on Saturday. According to the notice, the two-wheeler giant has to pay Rs 9.39 crore in taxes, Rs 7.32 crore in interest and a penalty of Rs 93.87 lakh, as stated in the company’s regulatory filing. Hero Motocorp, last week, reported a 47 per cent surge in its consolidated PAT for the quarter ending June.
Advertisement
BPCL
The oil and gas company is reportedly planning to invest Rs 1.7 lakh crore in oil refining and fuel marketing segments, over the next five years. BPCL will focus on newer segments like petrochemicals and green energy. Last week, the public sector company also set up a biofuel-blended High Flash High-Speed Diesel (HFHSD) bunker at Mumbai Port as part of its Aspire project.
Maruti Suzuki
The automobile major will be increasing its deferred tax liability by around Rs 850 crore due to changes in tax rules that removed the indexation benefit for calculating long-term capital gains on debt mutual funds. This will lead to a one-time reduction in profit after tax in the second quarter of the current fiscal year.
Poonawalla Fincorp
The financial company’s shares will be in focus on Monday owing to a penalty imposed by the Reserve Bank of India. The central bank reportedly fined the company Rs 10 lakh for failing to comply with certain provisions of the 'Non-Banking Financial Company - Systemically Important Non-Deposit Taking Company and Deposit Taking Company (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2016.'
Is Stock Market open on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan?
Benchmark equity indices will remain open on August 19 (Raksha Bandhan). According to the NSE calendar, there will be only four trading holidays left for the rest of the year. These holidays are October 2 (Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti), November 1 (Diwali/Laxmi Pujan), November 15 (Guru Nanak Jayanti) and December 25 (Christmas).
Just one email a week