Market Wrap, Feb 6: Sensex gains 163 pts; PSBs, pharma stocks jump

Continuing their northward journey, the benchmark indices gained for the fourth straight day on Thursday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept the repo rate unchanged at 5.15 per cent and maintained 'accommodative' stance in its sixth bi-monthly monetary policy review of the financial year 2019-20 (FY20). READ MORE

The S&P BSE Sensex added 163 points or 0.4 per cent to settle at 41,306 levels while the NSE's Nifty50 closed the session at 12,138, up 49 points or 0.4 per cent. On the NSE, the Nifty50 index ended at 12,138, up 49 points or 0.4 per cent. 

Bank and financial services stocks made impressive gains post the RBI policy announcement. Nifty Bank climbed 285 points or nearly a per cent to end at 31,287 while Nifty PSU Bank index closed at 2,312 levels, up 59 points or 2.63 per cent. Nifty Private Bank index rallied around a per cent to settle at 17,243 levels.

Volatility index India VIX slipped nearly 3 per cent to 13.75 levels. 

In the broader market, Nifty Midcap 100 index gained 0.7 per cent to 18,241 points and the Nifty Small Cap 100 index added 0.48 per cent to settle at 6,235.

Ajanta Pharma surged 11 per cent on Thursday, a day after the company reported strong set of numbers for December quarter of the current fiscal (Q3FY20). The company repored 61 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in its net profit at Rs 108 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2019. It had posted profit of Rs 67 crore in the year-ago period.1308.90 +114.50 (+9.59%)

Bharti Airtel has joined the elite club of Rs 3-trillion market capitalization (market-cap) as shares of the telecom services provider hit a new high of Rs 550, up 3 per cent on the BSE on Thursday in the intra-day trade. Reliance Industries (RIL), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDFC Bank, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), ICICI Bank, Infosys and Kotak Mahindra Bank are the other companies having market-cap of more than Rs 3 trillion. Currently, Bharti Airtel stands ahead of the state-owned banking major State Bank of India (SBI), non-banking finance company Bajaj Finance, and fast moving consumer goods company ITC.

GLOBAL MARKETS 

Global stocks extended their recovery on Thursday, cheered by record closes in Wall Street benchmarks following encouraging economic data, and after China announced a cut in tariffs on some imported goods from the United States.

In commodities, oil futures rose for a second day on Thursday amid investor optimism over unconfirmed reports of possible advances in combating the coronavirus outbreak in China which could cause fuel demand to rebound in the world’s biggest oil importer.