Market Wrap, March 2: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Volatility ran high in the domestic markets on Tuesday as investors tracked mixed signals from global peers and avoided making aggressive long positions in equities amid upward move in bond yields, yet again.

European shares paused on Tuesday as investors sought to guess the bond market's next move, while weak German retail sales reminded of continued Covid-19 fallout on the region's biggest economy. Moreover, falls in Asian stock markets, after a senior Chinese official expressed wariness about the risk of asset bubbles in foreign markets, and a drop in oil prices also weighed on sentiment.

The pan-European STOXX 600 share index edged 0.2 per cent higher, with Paris down, while Frankfurt and London eked out slim gains. In Asia, Chinese blue-chips slipped 1.3 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 1.2 per cent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.33 per cent and Japan's Nikkei was down 0.8 per cent.

Against this backdrop, benchmark indices witnessed wild swings during the session today. The headline S&P BSE Sensex swung 600 points in the intra-day trade and hit a high and low of 50,425 and 49,807, respectively. At close, the index was quoting at 50,297 levels, up 447 points or 0.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, on the NSE, the Nifty50 settled above the 14,900-mark, at 14,919 levels. The index was up 157 points or 1.07 per cent from Monday's close.

M&M and Tata Motors zoomed 5 per cent each and settled the session as the top gainer on the Sensex and Nifty, respectively. NTPC, Bajaj Auto, Tech M, Infosys, TCS, and Maruti Suzuki, all up in the range of 3 per cent to 4 per cent, were the other top gainers on the Sensex while Wipro, Adani Ports, and Hero MotoCorp were the additional gainers on the Nifty.

On the downside, ONGC, HDFC, PowerGrid, Dr Reddy's Labs, and SBI, down between 0.2 per cent and 3 per cent were the top drags.

Broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices today, highlighting underlying strength in the market. The S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices ended 1.55 per cent and 1.6 per cent higher, respectively.

On the sectoral front, only the NIfty PSU Bank index closed in the red for the second straight day, down 0.04 per cent. On the higher side, the Nifty Auto and IT indices closed over 3 per cent higher each, while the Nifty Pharma, Realty, Private Bank, and FMCG indices ended up between 0.7 per cent and 1.5 per cent.

And before we close, here are the buzzing stocks of the day:

Shares of privatisation bound Shipping Corporation of India were locked in the 20 per cent on Tuesday, hitting a fresh 52-week high of Rs 124.4 on the BSE after Department of Investment and Public Asset Management Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said the government has received multiple bids for the company. According to a PTI report, London-based shipping firm Foresight Group is among the multiple bidders who have put in preliminary bids for buying the government's entire stake in SCI.

That apart, investors of Bharat Petroleum Corporation got rewarded on Tuesday as market participants rushed to the counter in hopes of a special dividend payout. Shares of the state-owned refinery hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 482.4 apiece, up 6 per cent on the BSE in the intra-day trade, as its Board approved to offload the firm's holding in the Numaligarh Refinery unit for Rs 9,878 crore. Analysts expect the firm to either use the proceeds to pay a dividend of up to Rs 50 per share or reduce debt.

Shares of Tata Motors hit their highest level since May 2018, advancing nearly 6 per cent to Rs 347 on the BSE, after the company's sales growth in the month of February outperformed sector peers across the domestic commercial vehicle & passenger vehicle segments. The Tata group company reported a 119 per cent YoY growth in passenger vehicles at 27,225 units. The sales have been the highest-ever in the segment in nearly 9 years.

Lastly, shares of Bharti Airtel ended 1.7 per cent higher on the BSE today after the firm said it acquired 355.45 MHz spectrum for a total consideration of Rs 18,699 crore in the latest spectrum auction conducted by the government. Airtel said the spectrum acquired through the latest auction will also help improve its coverage in villages by offering the superior experience to an additional 90 million customers in India.