The market reversed early gains and is now trading in the red. The Nifty is struggling below 23,400 while the Sensex is now down nearly 100 points in midday trade after a strong start. The tech stock are holding up nevertheless with the Nifty IT Index maintaining close to 4% gains.
Here is a quick look at the top movers and shakers today –
The Solar Industries share price has plunged more than 11% in intra-day trade today. This is after the company inked a nearly Rs 13,000 crore deal to acquire South Africa’s Omnia Holdings. The street is still digesting the earning impact of such a massive deal and the immediate implications if any. As a result the stock price is under severe selling pressure.
Goldman Sachs has upgraded the target for Solar Industries. The international brokerage house sees scope for a 25% boost to FY28 earnings as a result of this deal.
The tech sector is no doubt the standout performer this morning. The Nifty IT Index is up nearly 4% intra-day led by Nifty heavyweights like HCLTech, TCS and Infosys. Tech Mahindra and Wipro too have clocked 3% plus gains. Several midcap names like Mphasis and LTM are also up over 4% each.
This upbeat sentiment is a direct result of the changing narrative on AI. As concerns about rapid disruption due to AI-led development eased. As per many market observers this also led to bargain buying in several tech counters.
However, there was one IT stock that remained in the red despite the sector-wide optimism. Coforge share price continued to see selling pressure after the two top-level management exits within a week. In a call yesterday, Coforge’s board explained the gaps in the disclosure of Board evaluation findings which followed the resignations of the Chairman and the NRC chairman.
The Coforge board, however, emphasised that it worked cohesively with all key strategic decisions being unanimously approved in the past. The clarification suggests that this issue is less about governance and more about conduct. Jefferies sees limited impact of these developments on Coforge’s growth strategy and have maintained their ‘Buy’ recommendation on the stock.
Another stock that’s been in news on concerns about the CEO succession race is the country’s largest private sector sector. The HDFC Bank share price gained nearly 2% intra-day after names of 2 possible CEO candidates have been submitted to the RBI. Several large brokerage houses like Bernstein, Macquarie, Jefferies and Nomura gave a thumbs up to the development and outlined rerating potential for the stock going forward.
Shriram Finance was among the key financial services stocks that have been under pressure in intra-day trade today. The share price of Shriram Finance fell over 3% as the US yield spiked 5% and India’s August retail inflation jumped to 8-month highs. This has kindled concerns about rate hike coming in the forthcoming RBI policy.