Market Wrap Podcast, May 24: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Benchmark indices settled higher on Monday as US stock futures suggested a positive start on Wall Street later today. The Dow Jones Futures were last up around 130 points, or 0.36 per cent, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Futures gained 0.5 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.

Trade in Europe was quiet as markets were closed in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and Austria for public holiday. Britain's FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40, meanwhile, moved higher by 0.3 per cent each in early trade. As regards Asia, major indices in Japan, China, and Australia gained between 0.2 per cent and 0.4 per cent.

Back home, traders found solace in the country's daily Covid-19 case count, which stayed below the 300,000-mark for more than a week.

Amid this, the BSE barometer of 30-shares settled 111 points, or 0.2 per cent, higher at 50,652 levels while the broader Nifty50 index closed at 15,198 levels, up 22 points or 0.15 per cent. Both the indices hit intra-day highs of 50,857 and 15,256, respectively. During the day, BSE m-cap also hit the $3 trillion-milestone.

The indices, however, underperformed the broader markets where both the MidCap and SmallCap indices scaled fresh peaks in the intra-day deals and settled around 0.8 per cent higher each. The BSE MidCap index touched a new record high level of 21,717 while the BSE SmallCap index hit 23,338.

Individually, Indian Oil Corporation, SBI, L&T, BPCL, Axis Bank, UPL, PowerGrid, and ITC were the top performing stocks in the large-cap space while Natco Pharma, Concor, Adani Transmission, Page Industries, Birlasoft Corporation, MEP Infrastructure Developers, and Astec Lifesciences were the gainers in the broader markets.

Of these, shares of State Bank of India gained over 4 per cent to quote at Rs 419 on the BSE in the intra-day trade, having rallied 9 per cent in the past two trading days, after the bank on Friday reported a strong performance on the asset quality front wherein slippages and restructuring were within guidance while sufficient provisioning buffer also provided comfort.

Those of Natco Pharma, meanwhile, surged 20 per cent to Rs 1,189, also its new high, on the BSE in the intra-day trade after the company said it has received approval from the US health regulator for the generic version of Celgene's cancer drug, Revlimids in US.

That apart, Pidilite Industries today entered the elite club of companies having a market-cap of over Rs 1 trillion. The shares of the company settled 4 per cent higher at Rs 2,056 on the BSE with an m-cap of Rs 1.04 trillion. It hit a 52-week high of Rs 2,076 apiece in the intra-day trade today.

Lastly, shares of Panacea Biotech jumped 5 per cent to Rs 391 in the intra-day trade after the company said it will launch production of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus at its plant in Himachal Pradesh. It will produce around 100 million doses of Sputnik V per year.

Sectorally, the Nifty PSU Bank index ended the day as the top gainer on the NSE, up over 2 per cent, followed by the Nifty Realty index (up 1.4 per cent), and the Nifty Media index (up 1 per cent). On the downside, the Nifty Metal index fell 0.6 per cent on the NSE.

Top news at this hour:

>> Grasim Industries today reported a net profit of Rs 480 crore for the March quarter of FY21, up 36 per cent year-on-year from Rs 354 crore reported in Q4FY20. It's revenue, meanwhile, increased 18 per cent YoY to Rs 4,394 crore.

>> The Ramco Cement also reported a nearly 47 per cent YoY growth in net profit at Rs 214 crore while revenue was up 17 per cent YoY at Rs 1,650 crore

>> On the economic front, banks operating in India reported fraud of Rs 4.92 trillion as on March 31, 2021, which represents nearly 4.5 per cent of the total bank credit, showed Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, which was sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. State Bank of India – the country’s largest public sector lender – reported the highest amount of loans as fraud - Rs 78,072 crore. SBI is followed by Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, and Union Bank of India.

>> Global brokerage Goldman Sachs believes international markets are underestimating the demand for oil amid re-opening of major economies, and it believes Brent crude may hit $80 per barrel going ahead.