Market Wrap, Dec 23: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Bulls had a field-day on D-Street on Wednesday as the benchmark indices ended the session near day's high as investors picked up information technology, realty, and financial stocks. Heavy-weights such as Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, TCS, ITC, and Bajaj Finance were the top Sensex contributors today.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended the day 437 points, or 0.95 per cent, higher at 46,444 levels, surging 545 points from the day's low. The broader Nifty50, on the other hand, reclaimed 13,600-mark and settled 135 points, or 1 per cent, higher at 13,601 levels.

India VIX, the volatility index, cooled off 6.7% to end at 20 levels. The market breadth remained firmly in favour of the bulls with over 3 stocks rising for every 1 stock that declined on the BSE.

IT stocks outperformed the markets for the second consecutive day as stock-specific news flow supported the sentiment. At the index level, Nifty IT and the S&P BSE IT indices hit their respective fresh record highs of 24,229 and 24,238 levels. Among individual stocks, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Infotech and MphasiS from the Nifty IT index scaled their respective fresh record peaks.

That apart, Nifty Realty index (up 4 per cent) and Nifty PSU Bank index (up 2 per cent) were other sectoral gainers.

Among other BSE stocks, shares of Vodafone Idea jumped over 12% on the BSE in the intra-day deals as the government remained uncertain on appealing against an arbitration award relating to retrospective tax demand against the company's promoter.

That apart, shares of InterGlobe Aviation rose 5% after the company's CEO Ronojoy Dutta said the company could slowly start rehiring staff in three months as capacity rebuilds from "the background of carnage" caused by Covid-19.  

In the broader market, S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices outrun the frontline indices today, settling 2.44 per cent and 2.65 per cent higher, respectively.

In the primary market, the IPO of Antony Waste Handling Cell was subscribed 14 times till 4 pm on the last day of the issue.

In the global markets, sentiment remained buoyed after a report that a Brexit trade deal could be struck later in the day. Additioanlly, a Reuters/INSEAD survey showed that Asian firms turned most optimistic in the fourth quarter of this year, as business activity picked up in the region and COVID-19 vaccines started rolling out in Western countries ahead of their Asian launch.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index traded 0.4% higher. However, London’s FTSE 100 lagged as the pound gained on the news and weighed on shares of internationally focused firms on the index.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei ended 0.33 per cent higher while South Korea's Kospi added nearly 1 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 0.8 per cent higher.