Punjab National Bank (PNB) shares gained almost 5 percent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Thursday in response to its home finance subsidiary announcing its initial public offering (IPO) of equity shares. PNB holds 51 percent in PNB Housing Finance Ltd.
PNB shares jumped 4.47 percent to an intraday high of Rs. 119 apiece, but later trimmed gains to trade at Rs.117.45, up 3.12 percent at around 10.25 a.m.
Read: PNB Housing Finance IPO: Things to know about the Rs. 2,500 crore public issue
Shares of J.Kumar Infraprojects rose 6 percent in intraday trading to Rs. 256.65 in response to the company informing the BSE on Tuesday evening that its joint venture had won contracts worth Rs. 5,000 crore from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.
ITD Cementation shares shot up almost 12 percent on the company's joint venture winning a contract worth Rs. 2,830 crore from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. The stock was trading at Rs. 152.85, a gain of Rs. 8.35, or 5.81 percent, at around 10.40 a.m.
The BSE Sensex was up 46 points and trading at 27,212 at around 10.27 a.m. Top Sensex gainers were Dr Reddy's Labs, Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel, while stocks that were dragging the 30-scrip benchmark index included NTPC, Infosys and Adani Ports.
Clearly, the exit of Jayant Sinha from the finance ministry in the recent Cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday has had no impact on the stock markets on Thursday.
In a note issued on Thursday, brokerage Angel Broking said markets will be factoring in June quarter earnings of India Inc. and therefore global events such as Brexit will have reduced impact on stock prices.
"With results for Q1FY17 likely to start flowing in from next week markets will be focused on them rather than global events," it said.
Read: Infosys Q1 FY2017: Revenues seen rising 12% in June quarter
Infosys will be declaring its first quarter (ended June) on July 15.
