Market Wrap Podcast, Sep 3: Here's all that happened in the markets today

A dizzying rally in the shares of Reliance Industries single-handedly propelled the BSE barometer Sensex past the 58,000 mark for the first time on Friday, countering any weakness in index heavyweights HDFC twins, Airtel and HUL. Further, a strong India Services PMI print at 56.7 in August, its best since February 2020 also boosted the sentiment.

Overall, the 30-pack index ended at 58,130, up 277 points. Nifty50 too recorded a fresh record high of 17,340 in intra-day deals and settled the day 89 points up at 17,324. The 50-pack index rose for the second consecutive week and added 3.7 per cent.

Even in the broader markets, the bulls continued to maintain their grip, with both BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices rallying for the ninth straight day. Both the indices also hit their respective all-time highs today. The midcap index closed 0.35 per cent higher and smallcap 0.41 per cent. The market breadth also favoured the buyers, but marginally.

Sectorally, weakness was seen in banking and financial names along with FMCG. That said, Nifty Media, Metal, Realty and Auto jumped over 1 per cent each.

Among stock-specific names, RIL hogged the limelight, surging to a new record high of Rs 2394 ahead of JioPhone Next smartphone launch. According to a Bloomberg report, a smartphone widely believed to be priced below $50, likely the world’s cheapest, will start selling a week from now. JioPhone Next will be packed with features like Google Assistant, automatic read-aloud of screen text, language translation, smart camera with augmented reality filters, and more. The stock ended 4 per cent higher at Rs 2388, with a market cap of over Rs 15 trillion.

Furthermore, the recently listed Zomato also soared to a new high of Rs 151, nearly doubling over its issue price of Rs 76 per share.

Shares of Exide Industries jumped 6 per cent after the company divested its entire stake in Exide Life Insurance Company, by way of sale to HDFC Life Insurance Company for a total consideration of Rs 6,687 crore. Exide Life Insurance Company is a material wholly-owned subsidiary of the Exide Industries. HDFC Life, however, ended 3 per cent down.

Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders jumped 5 per cent after PM Modi says the firm will partner Zvezda for the construction of commercial ships.

That said, the primary market too remained abuzz as IPO by Vijaya Diagnostic managed to sail through on the last day of an issue thanks to strong buying by QIBs. The issue was subscribed nearly 5 times, with QIB quota subscribed 13 times, and retail and HNI quota 100 per cent each. Ami Organics, at the same time, was in huge demand as the IPO garnered 65 times bids as of the end of Day 3.

Now, in the absence of any other triggers, global cues are likely to influence the market mood in the truncated week. Further, stock-specific moves can also influence sentiments. With markets already trading at record high levels, profit-booking may be seen in stocks running ahead of their fundamentals. Tech charts suggest Nifty could take support from 17,153 while 17480 could act as a resistance in the near term. Markets will remain shut on Friday, September 10, on account of Ganesh Chaturthi.