Market Wrap, Dec 20: Sensex hit fresh record highs in a range-bound trade

Despite a range-bound trade, domestic markets hit fresh lifetime highs for the third consecutive day on Friday. Investment sentiment remained in check in the absence of any key global and domestic cues.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed at 41,681.54-level, up 7.62 points or 0.018 per cent. Tata Steel, YES Bank, SBI, and Hero MotoCorp were the top gainers at the 30-share index, while Vedanta, Tata Motors, ITC, and M&M were the top drags for the day. On the NSE, the broader Nifty50 settled little changed at 12,271.8-mark, up 12.1 points or 0.09 per cent.

The benchmark Sensex and Nifty hit fresh highs of 41,809.96 and 12,293.90, respectively.

In a major corporate development, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Friday announced a rejig of its top management with Anand Mahindra, 64, transiting to the role of non-executive chairman from executive chairman, effective 1 April, 2020. In a statement, the firm said Pawan Kumar Goenka has been re-appointed the managing director with additional responsibilities of chief executive officer (CEO) for a year, effective 1 April, 2020. Shares of Mahindra and Mahindra reversed their 0.7 per cent intra-day gain, and declined 1.2 per cent in the intra-day deals today. The counter eventually settled 0.86 per cent lower at Rs 530.45. 

On the sectoral front, public sector banks gained the most on Friday fter the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to buy and sell bonds worth Rs 10,000 crore via open market operations. At close, the Nifty PSU bank index was the top performer on the NSE, up over 2 per cent. On the downside, Nifty Auto index slipped 0.45 per cent.

In the broader markets, the S&P BSE mid-cap index ended 0.15 per cent higher at 14,835.97 level, while the S&P BSE small-cap index ended unchanged at 13,391.03 level, down 0.03 per cent.

GLOBAL CUES

Asian shares snoozed near 18-month highs on Friday as trade thinned in the run-up to Christmas and investors seemed content to digest the chunky gains already made so far this month.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan were steady after rising 1.2 per cent so far this week. Japan's Nikkei reversed early gains after reaching a 14-month high earlier in the week. 

European stocks made tiny move today, although Italian shares outperformed on some positive company updates. The STOXX 600 rose just 0.1 per cent, still on course to end a second week with gains and trading about 1 percent below all-time highs.