Banks, financials lift Sensex by 876 points from day’s low, ends higher at 48,080
Sensex was up 374 points or 0.79% at 48,080, and the Nifty was up 109 points or 0.77% at 14,406.
After a gap down opening in the morning benchmark indices staged a strong recovery in afternoon trade on the back of supportive global cues and buying seen in banks and financial counters. On an intraday basis Sensex bounced back over 900 points from day’s low to hit an intraday high of 48,143. Likewise broader market index Nifty 50 made a smart recovery of 273 points from the day’s low.
At close, the Sensex was up 374 points or 0.79% at 48,080, and the Nifty was up 109 points or 0.77% at 14,406. About 1737 shares have advanced, 1128 shares declined, and 159 shares are unchanged.
ICICI Bank, HDFC twins, Bajaj Auto & SBI were top gainers on the Sensex rallying over 2% each. Titan, HUL, Asian Paints, Nestle India & UltraTech Cement were the laggards losing over 1.8%.
Banking and financial stocks were the star of the day as the Nifty Bank index ended at 31,745, up 2.04%. Meanwhile, the Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Private Bank indices gained 2.08% and 1.7%, respectively. Nifty Metal index rose 1.75%.
On the downside, Nifty FMCG, Nifty Phrama & Nifty IT lost anywhere between 0.20-0.75%. Even the volatility index India VIX rose 2.74% taking it 23 levels given an indication that the market to stay volatile.
“Indian markets opened in negative terrain due to overhang of rising COVID cases in the country. But market bounced from their lows in noon trades as global stocks inched higher and broad basing of the vaccination program,” said Narendra Solanki, Head- Equity Research (Fundamental), Anand Rathi
Economy:
With economic activities getting affected across the country due to curbs imposed by states amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, Care Ratings has revised down its forecast for GDP growth to 10.2% in 2021-22 from an earlier projection of 10.7-10.9%. This is the third revision by the rating agency in the last month.
Domestic rating agency ICRA on Tuesday cut its 2021-22 growth estimate by 0.5% on the upper end, as a newer spate of lockdowns and restrictions get imposed in pockets to arrest the rising COVID-19 cases. The agency now expects the economy to grow 10-10.5% in 2021-22, against the 10-11% estimated earlier.
Global markets:
European shares rose across the board while most Asian stocks advanced on Thursday following an overnight bounce on Wall Street.
The European Central Bank is scheduled to deliver its latest monetary policy announcement today, although no major shifts are expected.
In the U.S., Wall Street rebounded on Wednesday after a two-day decline in a broad rally as a tilt toward stocks poised to benefit from a recovering economy offset Netflix Inc’s sell-off after its disappointing results a day earlier. Both the S&P 500 and Dow hit all-time highs.