• Steel Authority of India (SAIL) reports highest ever quarterly sales at 4.2 million tonnes (MT) for Q4, a 14% jump on a YoY basis with production growing by 6% YoY to 4.5 MT.

• Federal Bank's loans and advances for Q4FY21 stood at 1.3 lakh crore growing by 9% on a YoY basis with deposits up by 13% YoY to 1.7 lakh crore.

• United Breweries, Timken India, Happiest Minds Technologies, and Sheela Foam are trading with three times the average weekly trading volume.

• HDFC Bank’s loans & advances grew by 14% YoY to Rs 11.3 lakh crore in Q4FY21 with deposits growing by 16.3% YoY to Rs 13.3 lakh crore.

• Multiplex operator stocks Inox Leisure and PVR hit their lowest point in 2021 as new Covid-19 restrictions decrease cinema capacity.

• Yes Bank's loans and advances for Q4FY21 stood at 1.7 lakh crore growing by 2% on a QoQ basis with deposits up by 11.4% QoQ to 1.6 lakh crore.

• Acai Institutional Partners cuts its stake in South Indian Bank by 1.5%, now holding 2.6% of the private lender.

• HDFC Securities expects the IT services sector to record higher growth in Q4. The brokerage's top picks are Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tata Elxsi, and Persistent Systems.

• Nifty Financial Services is in the red pulled down by Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

• Bajaj Auto reports March sales at 3.6 lakh units, a 52% jump on a YoY basis with domestic sales up by 70% and exports rising by 36% YoY.

• Markets fell in early trading. Nifty 50 was trading at 14778.75 (-88.6, -0.6%) , BSE Sensex was trading at 49596.97 (-432.9, -0.9%) while the broader Nifty 500 was trading at 12413.20 (-65.8, -0.5%)

• Market breadth is in the red. Of the 1673 stocks traded today, 648 were on the uptrend, and 978 went down.

Riding High:

Largecap and midcap gainers today include Adani Total Gas Ltd. (1168.00, 10.12%), Adani Transmission Ltd. (1094.00, 9.49%) and Steel Authority of India (SAIL) Ltd. (89.90, 7.22%).

Downers:

Largecap and midcap losers today include United Breweries Ltd. (1152.00, -7.26%), Canara Bank (146.80, -6.11%) and Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd. (187.40, -5.81%).

Movers and Shakers

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

Top high volume gainers on BSE included Poly Medicure Ltd. (914.80, 9.27%), Fortis Healthcare Ltd. (217.90, 7.74%) and Thyrocare Technologies Ltd. (1015.20, 7.38%).

Top high volume losers on BSE were United Breweries Ltd. (1152.00, -7.26%), EIH Ltd. (93.05, -2.57%) and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (1407.35, -1.73%).

Sheela Foam Ltd. (2100.95, 5.67%) was trading at 5.3 times of weekly average. Timken India Ltd. (1299.40, -0.92%) and TV Today Network Ltd. (278.55, 3.00%) were trading with volumes 4.2 and 3.9 times weekly average respectively on BSE at the time of posting this article.

BSE 500: highs, lows and moving averages

28 stocks took off, crossing 52 week highs,

Stocks touching their year highs included - ACC Ltd. (1907.55, -0.30%), Adani Transmission Ltd. (1094.00, 9.49%) and Ambuja Cements Ltd. (307.00, -1.29%).

5 stocks climbed above their 200 day SMA including Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd. (69.95, 5.27%) and Britannia Industries Ltd. (3699.00, 2.22%). 24 stocks slipped below their 200 SMA including Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. (193.30, -5.55%) and RBL Bank Ltd. (206.65, -4.42%).