Market Wrap, Nov 17: Here's all that happened in the markets today

The bulls continued to maintain their firm grip on Tuesday as the benchmark indices gained over 0.7 per cent to settle at record highs, led by buying in financial counters. The S&P BSE Sensex ended the day at 43,953, up 315 points, or 0.72 per cent while Nifty settled at 12,874, up 94 points, or 0.74 per cent. In the early deals, Sensex briefly touched the crucial 44,000-mark before retreating later.
 

With today's rally, the market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed companies crossed Rs 170 trillion to Rs 170.59 trillion.

Volatility index, India VIX, gained 3.5 per cent to 19.8 levels.
 

Meanwhile, the broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE MidCap index rallied over 1 per cent 16,147 levels while the S&P BSE SmallCap index ended 0.88 per cent higher at 15,910 levels.
 

The market breadth was in favour of the buyers as out of 3,002 companies traded on the BSE, 1,567 advanced and 1,252 declined while 183 remained unchanged.
 

As many as 179 securities on the BSE hit their 52-week high today while 51 slipped to their 1-year low.
 

On the sectoral front, banks and metal stocks logged stellar gains. The Nifty Bank rallied 587 points, or 2 per cent to 29,181.30 levels while Nifty Metal surged 2.5 per cent to 2,761 levels.
 

Among individual stocks, Tata Steel ended over 6 per cent higher at Rs 523 on the BSE after the company reported a strong set of numbers on operational front for the quarter ended September 2020(Q2FY21).
 

Global markets
 

Asian stocks held gains and moved tentatively further into record territory on Tuesday, after US benchmarks were pepped up by news of another promising coronavirus vaccine.
 

In Europe, stocks eased from eight-month highs as tighter coronavirus-driven restrictions across the continent hit travel stocks, halting a broader rally that was powered by encouraging Covid-19 vaccine news.
 

In commodities, oil prices edged up on expectations OPEC and its allies will extend oil production cuts for at least three months, while sentiment was bolstered by news of another promising coronavirus vaccine.