Sensex rebounds 690 points shrugs off assembly election results

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After opening in deep red benchmark Indian equity indices rebounded sharply in noon trades on the back of fresh buying seen in metal, FMCG and select pharma stocks. At close, Sensex was at 48,718 levels, down 64 points or 0.13%. On intraday basis, the index touched a low of 48,028 in the opening deals but recovered steeply and made an intraday high of 48,863 in late noon deals. Similarly, Nifty closed at 14,634 levels, up 3 points or 0.02%, after hitting an intra-day high of 14,673 and a low of 14,416.

Bharti Airtel, HUL, Maruti, Bajaj Finance and Asian Paints were the top gainers on the Sensex. On the downside, Titan, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank & Kotak Mahindra Bank tanked upto 1.4%.

“Indian markets opened on a negative following subdued Asian market as investors watch Covid situation in India as it breached 400 thousand new cases for the first time during the weekend. However, the markets scaled back and turned marginally positive towards the closing session with major support coming from sectors like Metals, FMCG, Pharma and Auto,” said Narendra Solanki, Head- Equity Research (Fundamental), Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers

Sectorally, the Nifty Metal index gained the most rallying 2.16%, followed by Nifty FMCG surging 1.1% while Nifty Auto & Nifty IT indices rose around 0.25%. On the other hand, Nifty Bank ended with losses of 0.96% and Nifty Realty slipped 0.63%.

Market breadth was positive as 1,177 stocks advanced compared to 736 shares declining and 383 scrips remained unchanged. The broader market outperformed benchmark indices as BSE MidCap rose 0.05% and BSE SmallCap jumped 1.57%.

Economy:

The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was reported at 55.5 in April 2021, little changed from March’s reading of 55.4, indicating a solid improvement in the health of the sector. Consumer goods was the strongest-performing category, followed by capital goods and then intermediate goods.

Global markets:

European shares were trading higher while Asian stocks declined on Monday, 3 May 2021. Major markets in China and Japan were closed for holidays.

Wall Street ended lower on Friday, with Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, and other tech-related companies weighing on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq despite recent strong quarterly earnings reports.