A sudden bout of last-hour sell-off in the banking and financial stocks trimmed gains on the benchmark indices on Thursday. After surpassing the psychological levels of 50,000 and 14,900 on the Sensex and the Nifty, rising 0.5 per cent in the early morning deals, the indices ended around 0.2 per cent higher today.
The Nifty PSU Bank and Bank indices declined 0.8 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively today while the Nifty Private Bank and Financial Services indices slipped 0.6 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively.
On the upside, the Nifty Metal index jumped 4 per cent amid firm global cues and steady rise in the metal prices. Hot-rolled coil prices in China — that acts as the global benchmark for steel prices — are up 28 per cent since the beginning of the current calendar year; they are up 116 per cent in the past 12 months.
That apart, investors also bought IT stocks ahead of a likely strong March quarter earnings' show. The Nifty IT index hit a record high of 27,413 in the intra-day trade, before ending at 27,134 level, up 1 per cent.
Overall, the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty50 closed at 49,746 and 14,874 levels, up 84 points and 55 points, respectively.
In the broader markets, the S&P BSE SmallCap index hit a record peak of 21,557 levels before closing at 21,449, up 0.73 per cent. The BSE MidCap index, on the other hand, ended at 20,778 levels, up 0.6 per cent.
Fiscal year 2021-22, according to G Chokkalingam, founder and chief investment officer at Equinomics Research will belong to the mid-and small-cap segments. He expects these two segments to outrun their large-cap peers going ahead.
Buzzing stocks
>> JSW Steel has joined the elite club of companies with Rs 1.5-trillion market capitalization (market-cap) on the BSE, after its share price rallied 14 per cent to hit an all-time high of Rs 638.90 in intra-day trade on Thursday. With an m-cap of Rs 1.54 trillion at 2 pm, JSW Steel stood at 24th position in overall market-cap ranking, according to the BSE data.
>> Shares of Tata Steel, meanwhile, hit an all-time high of Rs 953 as they rallied 9 per cent on the BSE in intra-day trade today. The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 924 touched on October 29, 2007. In the past one month, the Tata group company has rallied 25 per cent after global rating agencies upgraded the outlook on Tata Steel to stable, citing a recovery in Q3 of the financial year 2020-21 (Q3FY21).
>> That apart, shares of Barbeque-Nation Hospitality were locked in the 20 per cent upper circuit for the second straight day, at Rs 708.45, on the BSE. With today’s rally, the stock has surged 47 per cent from its Wednesday’s low of Rs 481.35.
>> Furthermore, shares of cement companies were in focus in Thursday's trading session, with Ambuja Cements, Shree Cement, JK Cement and the Ramco Cement hitting their respective new highs on the BSE, on strong demand expectations.
Besides these stocks, UltraTech Cement, ACC, JK Lakshmi Cement, India Cements, Orient Cement, Prism Johnson and Star Cement from the S&P BSE Allcap index were up in the range of 2-6 per cent on the BSE.
>> In the primary market, the Rs 2,500 crore IPO of Macrotech Developers was subscribed only 30 per cent till about 3:30 pm on the second day of the issue.
Global markets
Asian share markets lagged on Thursday as US stock futures nudged to another record high after the Federal Reserve underlined its commitment to keeping policy super loose even as the economy enjoys a rapid recovery.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat while Japan’s Nikkei eased 0.3% and Chinese blue chips 0.1%, with trading very subdued.
In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.3 per cent.
In the forex markets, the rupee ended lower at 74.6 per US dollar on Thursday vs Wednesday's close of 74.55. Given the RBI's Rs 1-trillion bond buying programme and slowdown in economic recovery, analysts expect the rupee to drift lower towards the level of 76.30 to 76.50 over the next two to three months.
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