Top headlines - Sensex gains 814 points ahead of Budget in broad-based rally
- Nifty PSU Bank soars 12% in four days; SBI nears record high
- Hotel stocks rally on improved outlook after third wave
- Govt okays Neelachal Ispat sale to Tata Steel Long Products; stock rises 6%
- Adani Wilmar IPO subscribed 17.36 times; GMP halves in a week
Bulls marched on Dalal Street on Monday, a day ahead of the Union Budget, as investors eyed pro-reforms, pro-growth measures from the annual document. This came after the Economic Survey said that the Indian economy was well placed to take on the challenges of FY23.
The survey projected that the country's economic growth would remain between 8 per cent and 8.5 per cent in FY23 amid wide vaccination coverage and supply-side reforms in the pipeline. For FY22, it estimated 9.2% growth.
This said, the BSE benchmark Sensex rallied over 1,000 points intra-day before settling 814 points higher at 58,014. The NSE Nifty rose 238 points to end at 17,340. Both these frontline indices gained 1.4% each.
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices advanced 1.76% and 0.99%, respectively.
A large part of today's rally in the headline indices was led by IT stocks like Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Infosys and HCL Tech, along with financials like the Bajaj twins and SBI, and heavyweights Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel.
On the downside, IndusInd Bank was the worst hit on profit booking after its Q3 results. Kotak Bank, and HUL were the other losers on the Sensex.
Within the broader market universe, the shares of AGS Transact Technologies debuted flat on the bourses at Rs 176 apiece, compared with an issue price of Rs 175. After listing, the shares fell and closed 8 per cent lower than the issue price.
Sectorally, top gainer Nifty Realty rose 3%. It was followed by the Nifty IT and PSU Bank indices, which gained 2.9% each. The shares of public-sector banks continued their upward movement for a fourth day, with the PSU Bank index gaining 12% during this period. From this pack, Canara Bank hit a 52-week high, while SBI was close to the record high it had hit on November 3.
Hotel companies also rallied amid a healthy earnings outlook, as higher vaccination and lower hospitalisation rates could lead to a much stronger rebound this time than the second wave. From the sector, Lemon Tree Hotel, Indian hotels, Oriental Hotels, Chalet Hotels and Asian Hotels were the top gainers, all up between 4 per cent and 9 per cent.
Further, among individual stocks, smallcap Tata Steel Long Products surged over 15 per cent intra-day on the BSE after the government approved the sale of loss-making Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd to the company for Rs 12,100 crore. By close of the session, it pared some of the gains and ended 6% up. MMTC Ltd, which holds a 49.7% stake in Neelachal Ispat also surged 10% on the development.
In the primary market, the IPO of Adani Wilmar had been subscribed 17.36 times as of 4:30 PM on the final day, with the non-institutional investor portion seeing the highest subscription of 56.3 times, while the retail investor and qualified institutional buyer categories had been subscribed 5.73 and 3.9 times, respectively. However, last week's sell-off eroded half of the IPO's GMP. Now that translates into a listing premium of just 10-20 per cent.
On Tuesday, the markets will gear up for the Union Budget for 2022-23. Additionally, auto companies may also be watched as they release their respective January sales data.
 "Market wrap: Sensex gains 814 points ahead of Budget in broad-based rally")
