Sensex zooms 612 points ends near 50,200-mark; Nifty ends above 15,100

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Key equity barometers extend gains for the third day with Sensex reclaiming the 50,000-mark after almost three weeks amid a sharp decline in Covid cases and on hopes restrictions/curbs would ease once cases decline further. Investors sentiments have also turned buoyant in anticipation of the vaccination drive in the country to pick up the pace with more and more pharma companies are entering into contracts for vaccine manufacturing.

At close, Sensex surged 612 points, or 1.24%, at 50,193. Nifty closed at 15,108 with a gain of 185 points, or 1.24%. Strong buying interest was seen in financial, auto and IT shares. Some selling pressure witnessed in pharma, FMCG and PSU bank scrips.

M&M, Bajaj Auto, Titan, Bajaj Finance & HDFC Bank were the top gainers on Sensex rallying up to 6%. On the other hand, stocks like Bharti Airtel, ITC, Dr Reddy’s, SBI and HUL were the laggards.

In the past three trading sessions, benchmark equity indices have rallied around 3% making investors richer by Rs 4.44 lakh crore.

“In anticipation of rapid fall in covid cases, the implication of corporate results and favourable Asian markets, the Indian market has reverted strongly after the 3 months of muted performance. Global futures indices rose ahead of the release of the Fed’s policy minutes, which is due on Wednesday, in anticipation of accommodative outlook,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

The broader market was buzzing today, as the Nifty Midcap index jumped 1.89% to end at record highs of 25,266.

Commenting on the rally in the mid & small-cap space Hemang Jani, Head Equity Strategy, Broking & Distribution at Motilal Oswal Financial Services said, “visibility on economic recovery front improves as industrial activities largely continued even during the lockdown and now with restrictions likely to ease, consumer demand is expected to make a come-back. Thus investors are heading more for mid-cap stocks as growing risk appetite and cheaper valuations of these companies compared to large-cap peers have revived their popularity.”

On the sectoral front, the Nifty Auto index climbed 3.2%, followed by the Nifty Metal jumped 1.66%. While Nifty Bank gained 1.38% and the Nifty IT was up 0.99%. On the contrary, the Nifty PSU Bank index slipped 1.27% and the Nifty FMCG and Nifty Pharma indices lost 0.19% each.

Global markets:

European shares declined while Asian stocks were mixed today as investors reacted to the release of Chinese economic data.

China’s industrial output grew 9.8% in April from a year ago, slower than the 14.1% surge in March, official data showed on Monday. Retail sales rose 17.7% year-on-year in April, down from the 34.2% jump seen in March.

Wall Street closed higher on Friday in a broad rally as signs of a rebounding economy squared off against mounting inflation jitters.