Closing Call : Banking sector in action, Axis, HDFC, ICICI biggest gainers during the day

Nifty closes the day at 23,516 points, down 0.18%, after touching an intraday high of 23,664. On the other hand, Sensex closed the day at 77,337.59, registering a marginal jump of 0.047%. The banking sector shone the brightest during the day, with the top 5 top gainers in the market being Axis, HDFC, ICICI, IndusInd and Kotak. On the other hand, Titan, Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto and BPCL lost significant ground during the day’s trade.

IndusInd gained momentum as global wealth management firm Bernstein initiated coverage of the stock, marking it outperform. It also began covering Bajaj Finance and Muthoot Finance. Combined with the existing stimulus in banking stocks, IndusInd closed the day's trade at Rs 1,536, up by 1.86%

Out of the 2,771 stocks traded on NSE during the day, 1,112 saw advances and 1,574 stocks declined. 227 stocks hit their 52-week high, and about 9 stocks also hit their 52-week low. The day’s trade ended with 124 stocks hitting the upper circuit, which means they hit the maximum permissible price allowed during a trading session. About 47 stocks remained in the lower circuit, meaning they hit the lowest permissible price possible during a singular trading session.
ESOPs galore
Many companies filed intimation with the NSE related to allocation of employee stock options during the day. This included Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, Max Estates, Mindteck (India) Limited, Federal Bank, Nippon Life India Asset Management and IDFC First Bank

In an all-cash deal, Maithan Alloys Limited bought a 0.01% stake in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for Rs 30.03 Crore. With this, Maithan Alloys total shareholding in HAL goes up to 0.07%. Notably, HAL is also set for a board meeting on 26th June, the agenda of which would be to consider dividend.

Axis Bank also acquired a stake in Max Life Insurance in an all-cash deal of about Rs 336 crore. Pre-acquisition, the bank held 19.02% stake in the insurance company, which has now gone up to 19.99%. Kotak Securities rates Axis stock as buy, with a target of Rs 1,285 and a stop loss at Rs 1,155. Axis; stock closed the day at Rs 1,229, up by 3.11%.

In other insurance news, Kotak Mahindra Bank announced that Zurich Insurance company has acquired a 70% stake in its general insurance business for a consideration of Rs 5,560 crores. Kotak’s stock closed at Rs 1,745 after day’s trade, up by 1.49%.

After multiple block deals early during the day, Indus Towers stock closed at Rs 334, down by 3.06%.