After Market: Britannia, Affle India rally on good Q2 show, 72 stocks hit 52-week highs

NEW DELHI: Shares of Britannia jumped 5 per cent on Wednesday as the biscuit maker reported a robust growth in earnings for the September quarter. Whereas Affle India extended its rally, jumping 11 per cent.

On the other hand, Sun TV sank 11 per cent after a disappointing Q2 show. Nifty Media index was the biggest sectoral loser on the NSE. The index ended with a cut of 4.5 per cent.

NSE barometer Nifty was down 73 points to 11,840 while BSE benchmark Sensex lost 229 points to 40,116 as factory output contracted to eight-year low. Broader market also traded in tandem with their headline peers ending in the red.

“Domestic news flow is turning negative and that would not allow the market to sustain at higher levels. Global cues are also mixed and not supportive in the short term. During the day, we saw deep cut in fundamentally weak companies, which suggests the risk appetite is getting over. Technically, we are anticipating further weakness for equity markets. Below the level of 11,850, Nifty would rest in the range of 11,750/11,700,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Senior Vice-President, Equity Technical Research, Kotak Securities.

Here is a lowdown on the movers and shakers of Wednesday’s session on Dalal Street:

IRCTC on wobbly track
Railways ticketmaster, IRCTC hit an all-time high of Rs 981.35 during the day, but could not sustain the gains and ended down 0.11 per cent at Rs 931.80 on BSE. The company was set to release its Q2 earnings post-market hours.

Britannia’s good Q2 show
Britannia’s shares jumped 5 per cent to Rs 3,270.25 after a strong performance in the September quarter. The company posted a 74 per cent increase in profit at Rs 492.58 crore for the second quarter, driven by premium products and cost efficiency programme.

Clouds over Sun TV
Shares of Sun TV plunged 11.12 per cent on BSE to Rs 470.20 after the company disappointed the Street with its September quarter numbers. Sun TV Network on Tuesday reported a marginal increase of 1.04 per cent in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 368.79 crore, hit by a surge in expenses.

Affle India jumps 11%
Affle India shares continued to jump after an impressive quarterly results. The shares surged 11.28 per cent to Rs 1,650.20 on BSE. On Monday, the stock had ended up 6 per cent. The company reported a 51 per cent growth in profit at Rs 10.3 crore on Saturday.

RIL, TCS fail to rescue Sensex
Despite a 216-point addition by TCS and Reliance Industries, Sensex closed in the red. The biggest culprits for this were ICICI Bank and Axis Bank that bled 121 points together. Infosys, ITC and SBI were other who made big cuts.

All sectors ended in the red
All sectoral indices on NSE ended with cuts. The biggest loser was Nifty Media that plummeted 4.5 per cent 1,793, followed by Nifty PSU Bank that dived 3.14 per cent to 2,383. Nifty Auto was the least affected by market-wide downtrend, ebbing 0.11 per cent to 8,150.

Broader market bleed
Broader market was not untouched by the gloom as Nifty Midcap shed 0.68 per cent to 16,698 while Nifty Smallcap ended 0.93 per cent lower. Nifty 500 was down 0.64 per cent to 9,634.

Most active stocks
YES Bank, which dived 6.5 per cent to Rs 68.25, was the most traded security on NSE in terms of value. RIL, ICICI Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance and SBI were the next four most active scrips. YES Bank was also the most transacted stock in terms of volume on NSE, followed by Vodafone Idea,Dish TV, Reliance Communication and SPTL.

Over 70 stocks at 12-month high
As many as 72 stocks hit 52-week high on BSE. They included names like Adani Green, Deepak Nitrate, HDFC AMC, DLF, IGL, Bajaj Finserv, Bharat Dynamics and CreditAccess Grameen, among others.