A day that began with the historic feat of touching the 50,000-mark milestone on the S&P BSE Sensex, turned into a nightmare for market participants as a massive bloodbath awashed investor wealth. Sentiment took a hit after fire broke out at the Serum Institute of India, the manufacturer of Covidshield Vaccine. That apart, expiry of the weekly F&O contracts further augmented the volatility.
The benchmark Sensex tumbled 785 points from record high to hit an intra-day low of 49,399. However, the sell-off was quickly bought into and the BSE barometer of 30 shares ended at 49,625 levels, down 167 points or 0.34 per cent.
ONGC, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, and IndusInd Bank were the top laggards on the index, down between 2 per cent and 4 per cent. Weightage-wise, profit-booking in HDFC twins, Airtel, TCS, ITC, and SBI dragged the index lower.
On the NSE, the Nifty50 index settled at 14,590 levels, down 54 points or 0.37 per cent.
All the key sectoral indices ended the day in a sea of red. Nifty PSU Bank index declined 3 per cent, followed by cuts in Nifty Realty index (down 2.3 per cent) and Nifty Metal index (down 2 per cent).
Earlier in the day, liquidity expansion by the central bank supported by FII inflows, a V-shaped economic recovery aided by the discovery of Covid-19 vaccine, and swearing-in of Joe Biden as the new president of the United States propelled the S&P BSE Sensex above the 50,000-mark for the first time and towards a record peak of 50,184. The Nifty50, too, hit a record peak of 14,753 levels.
Analysts now expect leaner balance sheet of India Inc along with government measures to lift the economic growth ahead. The same is likely to resonate in capital markets, thereby keeping the markets buoyant in the long term.
Coming to today's earnings, Bajaj Auto today reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,716 crore for the December quarter, up 29.7 per cent, from a profit of Rs 1,322 crore in the year-ago period. Sequentially, the profit surged 44 per cent. Shares of the two-wheeler maker ended around 3 per cent higher on the BSE.
Meanwhile, Bandhan Bank reported a net profit of Rs 633 crore, down 13 per cent, from previous year's profit of Rs 731 crore. Shares of the bank skid 4 per cent on the NSE, and ended as the top loser on the Nifty Bank index.
Global markets
World stocks racked up record highs on Thursday and the dollar fell, as investors bet major stimulus from new U.S. President Joe Biden support would cushion the coronavirus’s economic damage.
Europe's traders hoisted the FTSE, DAX and CAC 40 0.2 per cent to 0.4 per cent higher and pushed up the euro as they also waited for the European Central Bank's first policy meeting of the year.
Asian stocks reached new highs, MSCI's global index covering nearly 50 countries adding 0.3 per cent.
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