After Hours: Paper stocks on a roll; Maruti hits all-time high

NEW DELHI: Euphoria returned to Dalal Street on Monday, as bulls regained control of the market. Reports suggesting the BJP's win in the Gujarat Assembly Elections along with positive global cues boosted investor sentiment that helped Nifty50 index cross the 10,300 level for the first time this month.

The BSE Sensex gained 205 points to settle at 33,456 with TCS (up over 2 per cent) being the top gainer and NTPC (down 1 per cent) the worst laggard. The broader Nifty50 index of NSE gained 57 points to close at 10,322.25 with 33 constituents ending in the green.

Here's a look at the top stocks and sectors that stole the show.

On fast lane
Shares of India's biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India hit a fresh all-time high during the session after Morgan Stanley raised the target price to Rs 10,563 from Rs 9,102 earlier, citing end-market opportunity and superior RoCEs to justify the premium valuation. The global financial services firm sees 22 per cent EPS CAGR over FY18-20 for Maruti and it further believes that the stock can touch Rs 14,400 in the bull case. The stock settled at Rs 9,141.35, up over 1 per cent on BSE.



Paper stocks on a roll
Paper stocks were on fire amid reports the valuations of the companies may improve given the growth opportunity in the wake of rising paper prices due to shutdown of capacities in China. "China has stopped imports of several grades of waste paper as a part of campaign against foreign garbage, which has created shortage of raw material and impacted the paper production," ET had reported on December 6, 2017. Reacting to the news, the stocks made merry. While the stock of Star Paper Mills hit the upper circuit limit of 20 per cent, those of Malu Paper Mills soared 11 per cent on BSE. Shares of West
Coast Paper Mills and Seshasayee Paper gained 6 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively.



Milking gains
Shares of Parag Milk Foods surged 10 per cent after the company informed bourses that it had joined hands with Taj Group to supply its products on international flights. In a BSE filing, the company said, “All our products are in line with global quality standards which gave us the opportunity to supply to TajSATS Air Catering since August 2017. Taj has exclusive rights to serve our products to international customers who are introduced to the goodness of 100 per cent cow milk-based products.” The stock settled at Rs 268.40, up 9.84 per cent on BSE. Other dairy stocks too surged in the trade. Shares of Prabhat Dairy hit upper circuit limit of 20 per cent at Rs 210.65 on BSE.



Jet Airways flies high
Shares of airline company Jet Airways rallied over 4 per cent in the afternoon trade on Monday after the brokerage firm Edelweiss upgraded the stock to 'BUY' from 'HOLD'. The brokerage firm also revised the target price to Rs 822 from Rs 548. The stock settled at Rs 696 apiece, up 4.58 per cent.



Realty only pocket in the red
Realty stocks were the only laggards on NSE with Nifty Realty index closing 0.55 points or 0.17 per cent at 322.85 with 5 out of 10 constituents ending in the red. HDIL (down over 2 per cent), Indiabulls Real Estate (down 2 per cent) and The Phoenix Mills (down 1 per cent) were the top losers on the index.



IT, PSBs lead the gains
Shares of IT and state-run banks were the leading gainers. While the Nifty IT index gained 151 points or 1.35 per cent to settle at 11,324 with 8 out of 10 components ending in the green, Nifty PSU Bank index climbed over 1 per cent to settle the session at 3,809.



Spurt in open interest
Shares of Wockhardt Pharma witnessed the biggest spike in open interest contracts at 33.27 per cent, followed by Arvind (30.70 per cent) and NBCC (20.12 per cent).