Market Movers: Everybody wants in on innerwears; ‘Mota bhai’ flexes muscles, and M&M shares fly

MUMBAI: Okay, so today we came to know that the average Dalal Street investor believes that since all of us are sitting at home due to lockdown, we are not exactly putting our innerwears to use or at least that’s what we gather from the skyrocketing innerwear stocks in the market.

The idea seems to be that as several states ease restrictions come June, the first thing folks are going to buy are new innerwears. After all, one wants to look fresh out of the lockdown from outside and inside.

Even some heavyweight investors shared the view, perhaps, as WHV-EAM International Small Cap Equity Fund bought a stake in Lux Industries on Wednesday, which was followed up by Abakkus and GMO buying shares in Rupa & Company on Thursday. Shares of both of those companies soared 9 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively. Who says stock market investing is not creative!

Look who showed up!
Well if there was anyone the Nifty50 could have counted on to give it the final push to reach its lifetime high based on recent track record, it won’t have been Reliance Industries. The stock, which has gone nowhere all throughout the year so far, decided it’s going to finally act like its status and contribute. And contribute, it did.

RIL, also known fondly as ‘Mota bhai’ in the market, surged 6 per cent to single-handedly help the benchmark index hit its record high almost three and a half months after it did so in February. The surge in the stock was due to a convincing argument put forth by Jefferies India that soaring global petrochemical prices will boost RIL’s earnings in the June quarter.

It’s good to see old faces once in a while, although, RIL investors will hope that the rally is here to stay.

Disappointing Sun
Folks will do well to avoid Sun Pharmaceutical’s offices today given the level of disappointment investors have from the earnings of the country’s largest drug maker. One-offs and a weak US business resulted in the company’s earnings missing Street’s estimates, but it is the below par show of the specialty drug business that hurt investors. The stock tanked over 4 per cent. We hope that the investors find the grit to move over this disappointment.

It’s not a bird, it’s not a plane, it’s M&M!
Shares of the tractor and Thar maker rose 2 per cent despite an uninspiring set of earnings for the March quarter. However, it is not the numbers that caught investors’ attention, but was the management’s optimism.

“The strong margins and turnaround of global subsidiaries in FES along with a robust automotive demand momentum through the focused SUV strategy has set the ground for us to now accelerate to fly,” said the company’s executive director.

Investors were more than willing to be on-board.