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

Indices oscillated between gains and losses on Tuesday, clocking wild movements in the intra-day deals, as investors followed the 'sell on rally, buy on dips' approach. That apart, the government's nod to allow people above the age of 45 years to get vaccinated against coronavirus from April 1, coupled with a nearly 4 per cent decline in Brent Crude Futures, at $63 per barrel, gave ammunition to the bulls.

Such was the volatility that the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex reversed losses and jumped 600 points from the day's low of 49,662 to hit a high of 50,265. Meanwhile, the Nifty50 index hit an intra-day high and low of 14,879 and 14,707, respectively.

The BSE barometer settled at 50,051 levels, up 280 points or 0.56 per cent while the Nifty closed at 14,815 levels, up 78 points or 0.53 per cent.

UltraTech Cement, up 2.6 per cent, was leading the list of gainers, followed by IndusInd Bank, Titan, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, SBI, and HDFC Bank. Shree Cement, Adani Ports, Divis Labs, Tata Motors, and Maruti Suzuki were the additional gainers on the Nifty. All these stocks were up in the range of 1 per cent and 3 per cent.

On the downside, ONGC, Hindalco, Power Grid, ITC, NTPC, HDFC, and BPCL, down up to 2.4 per cent, were the top laggards in a firm market.

In the broader markets, Bank of India, Adani Group stocks, Union Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Page Industries, IDFC First Bank, and ACC helped the S&P BSE MidCap index to settle 0.95 per cent higher, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index added 0.75 per cent.

Individually, shares of Adani Group companies were on roll on Tuesday with Adani Green Energy crossing Rs 2-trillion market capitalisation on the BSE, while Adani Total Gas touched Rs 1-trillion m-cap in the intra-day deals after a strong rally in these stocks.

Adani Green Energy (AGEL) is the first group company to hit Rs 2-trillion market-cap, while Adani Total Gas became the fourth group company to join the Rs 1-trillion m-cap club. Including Adani Transmission, six of the seven listed Adani group companies now feature in the top 50 most valued companies in terms of market-cap.

That apart, shares of Alkyl Amines Chemicals rallied 12 per cent to Rs 5,990, also its new high, on the BSE in the intra-day trade ahead of the sub division of face value of equity shares from Rs 5 to Rs 2. On March 19, the specialty chemicals maker received the shareholders' approval for the stock split.

On the downside, shares of Easy Trip Planners slipped 7 per cent to Rs 183.60 on the BSE, thereby falling below its issue price of Rs 187 per share. With today’s decline, it has slipped 21 per cent from its high of Rs 233.15 hit on the debut day.

Sectorally, the Nifty PSU Bank index emerged as the winner with 3 per cent gains by close. The other two banking indices too settled 1.7 per cent higher each after the Supreme Court, in its verdict in the loan moratorium case, pronounced that there cannot be a complete waive off of interest payments. It, however, observed that compound interest for all loans will have to be refunded or adjusted in the forthcoming quarters.

According to Gaurang Shah, senior vice president at Geojit Financial Services there is likely to be a short-term overhang on the banking space due to the SC’s ruling to waive-off interest on interest. This compound interest was an extra source of income for the banks, which will now be refunded/adjusted over the next couple of quarters. That said, he says that there has been a significant recovery in the banks’ earnings which may cushion the overall impact.

That apart, the Nifty Auto, Financial Services, IT, and Reality indices gained up to 1 per cent on the NSE. On the downside, the Nifty FMCG and Metal indices skid 0.4 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.

Global markets
 

Asian stocks reversed earlier gains on Tuesday, dragged down by declines in Chinese markets, which were jolted by a new round of sanctions. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.76 per cent, hurt by a 1.42 per cent fall in Chinese blue chips.

The United States and others, including the European Union, sanctioned Chinese officials on Monday over human rights abuses, and Beijing hit back with punitive measures against European lawmakers, diplomats, institutes and families.

Beyond China, Asian shares were mixed. Japan fell 0.61 per cent and Australia fell 0.11 per cent. In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 slipped 0.5 per cent during noon deals.

As regards Wall Street, futures of all three main indices were down half a per cent.