The announcement of a month-long night curfew in the national capital city of Delhi capped gains on Dalal Street on Tuesday as investors decided to book profit, erasing gains clocked earlier in the day.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex had risen over 400 points while the broader Nifty50 index had surged 140 points in the early deals after a weak trading session on Monday. However, the indices pared gained and ended mildly higher soon after the Delhi government imposed night curfew in the city till April 30 with immediate effect in the wake of rising coronavirus cases. The city joins the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan to impose restrictions.
Individually, the benchmark Sensex index settled at 49,201 levels, up 42 points, or 0.09 per cent, and the Nifty closed at 14,683 levels, up 46 points or 0.3 per cent. In the intra-day deals, the indices had hit a low of 48,936 and 14,574, respectively.
Up to 2 per cent losses in heavyweight like Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Power Grid, SBI, UltraTech Cement, Maruti Suzuki, and IndusInd Bank put a lid on gains even as stocks such as Asian Paints, HDFC, HUL, TCS, Sun Pharma, Infosys, and Bharti Airtel tried to support the markets.
The broader markets, however, braved the volatility and settled higher. The S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices added 1 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively by close.
Sectoral trends depicted that the market mood was defensive as the Nifty Pharma (up 2 per cent), FMCG (1 per cent), and Metal (1.5 per cent) indices remained top gainers on the NSE today while the Nifty IT index was up 0.25 per cent. The Nifty Bank and Private Bank indices, meanwhile, skidded around 0.4 per cent each ahead of the RBI's monetary policy committee's outcome due tomorrow.
Buzzing stocks
>> Shares of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone surged 15 per cent to Rs 852, also its fresh record high, on the BSE in the intra-day trade today after the company reported a 41 per cent year on year jump in cargo volume business at 26 million metric tonnes in March. The stock of the Adani Group company surpassed its previous high of Rs 768.40, touched on March 8.
It handled cargo volume of 73 MMT in Q4FY21 while for the full financial year, the company handled cargo volume of 247 MMT, registering a growth of 11 per cent on a YoY basis.
>> Shares of Panacea Biotec were locked in the upper circuit of 20 per cent at Rs 220.85 on the BSE in today's session after the company and the Russian Direct Investment Fund agreed to produce 100 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine in India per year.
>> On the downside, shares of Heranba Industries slipped 3 per cent to hit a new low of Rs 603 on the BSE in intra-day trade, falling below its issue price of Rs 627 per share. The stock of the agrochemicals company was trading at its lowest level since its listing on March 5. It has now corrected 36 per cent from its high of Rs 944.95 touched on its debut day.
Global markets
World stocks hit record highs on Tuesday, supported by strong economic data from China and the United States, while currency and bond markets paused for breath after a month of rapid gains in the dollar and Treasury yields.
MSCI All Country World Index hit an all-time high as did the European stocks. The pan-European STOXX 600 index hit a record high, up 0.8 per cent while the German DAX rose 1.1 per cent, France's CAC 40 was up 0.6 per cent, and the UK's FTSE 100 jumped 1.2 per cent.
Profit-taking, meanwhile, pushed Japan’s Nikkei down 1 per cent and dragged on the Shanghai Composite.
In the commodities segment, however, analysts believe that the recent resurgence in Covid-19 cases and sporadic lockdowns across the globe might do little to add the lost sheen in gold prices due to the aggressive vaccination programme and the bleak possibility of a prolonged lockdown in emerging market countries like India.
That said, on a long-term basis, they are quite bullish on the prospects of the yellow metal and believe a 20 per cent correction in the prices from record highs makes it a good buying opportunity.
Gold futures ended half a per cent higher at Rs 45,568 per 10 gm on MCX today.
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