Market Wrap Podcast, Aug 25: Here's all that happened in the markets today

In a tussle between the bulls and bears on Dalal Street today, the bears managed to have an upper hand but did not batter the bulls completely. Profit booking in private lenders, Maruti and Titan pulled the benchmark indices from all-time high levels. BSE Sensex ended the volatile session flat, down 15 points or 0.03% at 55,944. It hit a fresh peak of 56,198 today. Meanwhile, NSE Nifty shut shop at 16,635, up 10 points or 0.06%. It touched a new high of 16,712.

Among 30 Sensex stocks, only nine closed in the green. Bajaj Finserv was the worst loser followed by Titan, Maruti Suzuki and Bharti Airtel while TCS, Infosys, RIL and Nestle India were the top gainers.  

That said, market breadth favoured buyers as the advance-decline ratio was nearly 2:1. This can be attributed to the buying witnessed by the mid and smallcap indices which rose for the second day today. The BSE Midcap index rose 0.58% and BSE Smallcap 0.68%.

In the sectoral pack, Nifty FMCG, IT and Metal indices were the only gainers, up over 0.5 per cent each. Nifty Realty, meanwhile, put up the weakest show, down 0.8 per cent.

Among stock-specific names, shares of Allied Digital rallied 10 per cent to Rs 65.75 on the BSE after the company said it has won a six-year contract valued at Rs 650 crore from a global automotive giant.

Among large caps, TCS jumped to an all-time high of Rs 3697 today. The stock finally ended the day at Rs 3659.50, up 1 per cent. Further, the company's market cap also soared to Rs 13.5 trillion.

Adani Ports jumped nearly 4 per cent after the company's proposal to acquire a 10.4 per cent stake for Rs 644.78 crore of  Gangavaram Port from the Andhra Pradesh government has received approval from the state's maritime board.

On the flip side, shares of Star Cement tumbled 6 per cent to Rs 109.60 on the BSE after the stock of cement manufacture turned ex-share buyback today. The company has fixed Thursday, August 26, 2021, as the record date for the purpose of buyback of equity shares.

In other news, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam undertook the annual performance review of PSU Banks today. In a press conference, the FM said collectively, PSU Banks have done well and come out of Prompt Corrective action despite the pandemic. They are showing clear profits and are also now able to raise money for their capital requirements.

Now, going into trade on Thursday, high volatility will be on cards amid the monthly F&O expiry. Further, all eyes will be on the US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's commentary at Jackson Hole Symposium. There have been expectations that Powell might indicate when the central bank could begin "tapering" or easing stimulus to an economy now recovering from Covid-19.