India's blue-chip Nifty 50 index hit a record high on Friday, as financials and materials stocks gained ahead of a key indirect tax related meeting by the country's finance minister later in the day.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was up 0.65% at 15,437.05 by 0347 GMT, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was 0.53% higher at 51,383.43. Both the indexes have gained around 2% for the week.

Shares of Punjab National Bank (PNB) slipped 8 per cent to Rs 37.25 on the BSE on Wednesday, falling 10 per cent in the past two trading days after the bank announced the opening of qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue on Tuesday. However, the share price of the state-owned lender has fallen below the QIP floor price of Rs 37.35 per share.

In the past month, the stock has run up strongly, rallying nearly 40 per cent till Monday. At 09:44 am, the stock was trading 6 per cent lower at Rs 38.15, as compared to 0.71 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The counter has seen huge trading volumes, with a combined 87 million equity shares were changing hands on the NSE and BSE.

Shares of Manappuram Finance slipped 6 per cent to Rs 174 on the BSE in the early morning deal on Tuesday after nearly 5 per cent of total equity of gold finance company changed hands via block deals.

At 09:15 am, around 43.05 million shares of Manappuram Finance have changed hands via block deals on the BSE, the exchange data shows. The name of the buyers and sellers were not ascertained immediately.

Shares of Rallis India continued their northward march and rallied 7 per cent on Wednesday to hit 21-month high level of Rs 247 on the BSE. The stock of the Tata Group agrochemicals company was trading at its highest level since April 25, 2018.

Thus far in January, Rallis has zoomed 47 per cent after it delivered an all-round performance in Q3 on the back of a 35 per cent yoy growth in the domestic business. This is Rallis' best performance in the last six years, albeit on a low base.

Shares of HDFC advanced 3.13 per cent to Rs 2,470.85 on the BSE on Tuesday after the housing finance firm posted a strong December quarter result on Monday. The non-banking finance company (NBFC) reported a 219 per cent rise in profit before tax (PBT) at Rs 9,143 crore in the third quarter of the current financial year mainly aided by a one-time fair value gain of Rs 9,020 crore.

At 9:41 am, the stock was trading 2.47 per cent higher at Rs 2,454.9 apiece on the BSE, as against a 0.3 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. So far, over 2.36 million shares have changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE.

Private lender Axis Bank surged as much as 3.4 per cent, to Rs 737.3 on the BSE, in the early trade on Thursday after the bank's loan growth touched a 7 quarter high during the December quarter of FY20 despite the slowdown in the economy. That apart, the bank's provisions declined 1.34 per cent sequentially to Rs 3,470.92 crore in Q3FY20.

The bank's loan book for the quarter ended December 31, 2019 stood at Rs 5.5 lakh crore, up 16 per cent year-on-year.

Shares of Vodafone Idea surged 16 per cent to Rs 5.70 on Tuesday, extending its Monday's 8 per cent gain on the BSE, amid hopes that the Supreme Court (SC) may extend the deadline for adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues payment of January 24, 2020.

On Friday, the stock of telecom services provider tanked 25 per cent to level of Rs 4.51 after the SC rejected the review petition by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel challenging the apex court's 24 October order on AGR.

Shares of real estate companies advanced at the bourses on Thursday, gaining up to 6 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), after the State Bank of India (SBI) launched a Residential Builder Finance with Buyer Guarantee (RBBG) scheme to safeguard home buyers financially.

Sunteck Realty, Indiabulls Real Estate, DLF and Oberoi Realty were up more than 2 per cent each on the NSE in the intra-day trade today. Meanwhile, Sobha, Mahindra Lifespace Developers, and Godrej Properties gained in the range of 1 to 2 per cent.

Shares of ICICI Securities climbed 14 per cent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 415.15 on the BSE on Friday amid expectation of earnings improvement going forward.

The counter has seen huge activities with trading volumes rose more than two-fold today. A combined 766,750 equity shares had changed hands on the NSE and BSE till 10:14 am. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.46 per cent at 41,354 points.

Shares of state-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) gained 4 per cent at Rs 899 on the BSE on Tuesday after the Ministry of Railways revised tariff of standard meals on static units in railway stations.

In an exchange filing yesterday, IRCTC said the Ministry of Railways had revised the tariffs.

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