• ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund trims its stake in the Great Eastern Shipping Company selling 1.5 lakh shares via a market sale.

• The promoter of Asian Paints creates a pledge on 1.1 lakh shares worth Rs 26.1 crore. As of December 2020, 10.6% of the paints company's promoter holding was pledged.

• Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, JSW Energy, Jai Corp, and ICRA are trading with volume six times the average weekly trading volume.

• TVS Motor Company reports a 21% YoY jump in two-wheeler sales for February at 2.8 lakh units with domestic sales up by 15% and exports up by 35% YoY.

• Shipping Corporation of India hits a 52-week high as the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) states it has received multiple bids for the disinvestment of its 63.7% stake in the shipbuilder.

• Eicher Motors report Royal Enfield sales for February at 69,659 units, a 10% rise on a YoY basis with exports rising by 94% to 4,545 units.

• Nirmal Bang, in a report on the automobile space expects heavy commercial vehicles to recover in February due to demand from the infrastructure and mining sector.

• Hero MotoCorp, the largest domestic two-wheelers maker, reports total sales for February at 5 lakh units, a marginal rise of 1.4% YoY, with scooter sales more than doubling to 41,744 units in the month.

• Power Grid Corporation of India's board approves an interim dividend of Rs 4 per share to be paid on March 30.

• Bharat Petroleum Corporation will sell its 61.6% stake in Numaligarh Refinery for Rs 9,878 crore as part of the privatization process.

• Markets opened high. Nifty 50 was trading at 14882.50 (121.0, 0.8%) , BSE Sensex was trading at 50308.20 (458.4, 0.9%) while the broader Nifty 500 was trading at 12475.45 (107.2, 0.9%)

• Market breadth is overwhelmingly positive. Of the 1602 stocks traded today, 1288 were in the positive territory and 266 were negative.

Riding High:

Largecap and midcap gainers today include JSW Energy Ltd. (86.20, 16.02%), Adani Power Ltd. (61.30, 9.96%) and Adani Total Gas Ltd. (574.30, 9.30%).

Downers:

Largecap and midcap losers today include Indian Overseas Bank (17.20, -3.37%), Union Bank of India (38.80, -3.12%) and Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (113.50, -3.03%).

Volume Shockers

37 stocks in BSE 500 are trading on high volumes today.

Top high volume gainers on BSE included Shipping Corporation of India Ltd. (124.50, 20.00%), Symphony Ltd. (1446.40, 20.00%) and IOL Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (658.05, 19.99%).

Top high volume losers on BSE were Metropolis Healthcare Ltd. (1932.20, -1.41%), Thyrocare Technologies Ltd. (911.60, -0.99%) and Orient Refractories Ltd. (228.55, -0.52%).

JSW Energy Ltd. (86.20, 16.02%) was trading at 14.6 times of weekly average. Jai Corp Ltd. (105.50, 14.30%) and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (211.00, 5.82%) were trading with volumes 11.7 and 10.6 times weekly average respectively on BSE at the time of posting this article.

BSE 500: highs, lows and moving averages

78 stocks overperformed with 52 week highs,

Stocks touching their year highs included - 3M India Ltd. (25068.65, 3.81%), Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. (720.50, 3.98%) and Aegis Logistics Ltd. (323.60, 0.43%).

12 stocks climbed above their 200 day SMA including IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd. (112.75, 5.28%) and Himadri Speciality Chemical Ltd. (47.85, 4.82%). 1 stock slipped below their 200 SMA including Natco Pharma Ltd. (802.20, -2.26%).