Sensex zooms 750 points; Nifty ends above 14,750

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After a heavy sell-off in the previous trading session, value buying coupled with positive global & domestic sentiments helped benchmark Indian indices gain over 1.5%.

At close, the Sensex was up 749 points or 1.53% at 49,849, and the Nifty was up 232 points or 1.60% at 14,761.

Except for Bharti Airtel, all shares on the Sensex ended in the green. Powergrid, ONGC, Ultratech Cement, Asian Paints, & Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top gainers on the Sensex.

The advance-decline ratio favoured the bulls as 1,949 shares advanced, whereas 1,120 shares declined, and 198 shares remained unchanged on the BSE.

Sectorally Nifty Auto was up 2.38% as auto manufacturers shared their sales number for the month of January.

Individually, Maruti Suzuki reported a 12% growth in total sales on yearly basis, while Tata Motors clocked a 54% jump in domestic sales. Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors reported 6% & 18% growth, respectively on annual basis.

On the other hand, the Nifty Metal index rose 1.94%. Nifty Bank, Nifty Realty, Nifty IT & Nifty FMCG all ended with gains of 1-1.5%.

The volatility index cooled off by 9% to end at 25.6 levels.

Economy

The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 57.5 in February 2021, highlighting a strong improvement in operating conditions that was broadly similar to that recorded in January (57.7). The headline figure remained above its long-run average of 53.6.

India’s economy returned to growth in its fiscal third quarter after a recession earlier in 2020. Gross domestic product grew 0.4% in October-December compared with the same period a year earlier, data released by the National Statistics Office on Friday showed. That compared with revised contractions of 7.3% in July-September and 24.4% in April-June.

The output of eight core infrastructure sectors grew marginally by 0.1% in January, mainly due to growth in the production of fertiliser, steel and electricity. The core sectors had expanded by 2.2% in January 2020, according to the provisional data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on Friday.

The Central government’s fiscal deficit soared to Rs 12.34 lakh crore or 66.8% of the revised Budget estimates at the end of January 2021 of the current fiscal. The fiscal deficit at the end of January 2021 in the previous financial year was 128.5% of the Revised Estimates (RE).

Meanwhile, the country’s foreign exchange reserves increased by $169 million to $583.865 billion in the week ended 19 February 2021, as per the data released by RBI. In the previous week ended 12 February 2021, the reserves had declined by $249 million to $583.697 billion. It had touched a record high of $590.185 billion in the week ended 29 January 2021 this year.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses closed significantly higher amid some stability in bond markets after last week’s turmoil. Further, progress in the US stimulus package also lent some support to investor sentiments globally.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.88% lower at USD 65.39 per barrel.

On the forex market front, the rupee dropped 8 paise to end at 73.55 against the US dollar.