Market Wrap, Feb 15: Here's all that happened in the markets today

The Indian stock markets touched sky high on Monday as bulls rode on banking and financial counters even as bears took control over IT and metal stocks. Amid contained Covid-19 infections, Budget boost, and economic revival, frontline indices gained over 1 per cent today while midcap stocks outperformed their large-cap peers.

The headline S&P BSE Sensex closed above the 52,000-mark for the first time on gains of 610 points, or 1.18 per cent, at 52,154 levels. In the intra-day trade, the index hit a record high of 52,177.5 levels. Axis Bank (up 6 per cent) ended the day as top gainer on the index, followed by gains in ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, SBI, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, and HDFC Bank, all up between 2 per cent and 4 per cent.

However, losses in TCS, Dr Reddy's Labs, Tech Mahindra, HUL, Asian Paints, and HCL Tech, all down up to 1.8 per cent, capped gains.

NSE's Nifty50, on the other hand, hit a record high of 15,327 levels in the intra-day trade before ending at 15,315-mark, up 151 points or 1 per cent. About 22 stocks declined on the index today, compared with 28 stocks that advanced. SBI Life, HDFC Life, TCS, Dr Reddy's Labs, Grasim, and Tech M were the top losers on the index.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index closed around 1.4 per cent higher with up to 14 per cent gains in Cholamandalam Finance, Apollo Hospitals, Adani Transmissions, LIC Housing Finance, Adani Enterprises, and M&M Finance.

On the contrary, the S&P BSE SmallCap index closed 0.4 per cent higher.

On the sectoral front, the Nifty Bank index stole the show and hit a new peak of 37,309 levels, up 1,200 points in the intra-day trade. The index closed 1,197 points, or 3.3 per cent, higher at 37,306 levels. That apart, the Nifty Financial Services index and the Private Bank index ended nearly 3 per cent higher each. On the downside, the Nifty IT and Metal indices closed 0.4 per cent lower.

Among individual stocks, shares of Apollo Hospitals ended over 12% higher after the company reported better-than-expected December quarter earnings. It posted a 49 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 134 crore in Q3 mainly on account of a reduction in expenses. Global brokerages JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse are all positive on the stock.

That apart, shares of Motherson Sumi Systems hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 221, up 12 per cent in the intra-day trade, on the BSE after the company reported its highest-ever quarterly revenue of Rs 17,923 crore in Q3FY21. The stock has surged 23 per cent in the past two trading days.

On the downside, share of Amara Raja Batteries plunged 8 per cent to Rs 915 apiece in the intra-day trade after the company reported disappointing operating performance with EBITDA margin declining 200 basis points (bps) quarter on quarter and 160 bps YoY to 15.6 per cent in December quarter due to higher staff cost. The shares ended 6% lower today.

Tata Motors, meanwhile, ended 2.5% higher today after the company said Jaguar Land Rover will begin closer collaboration with Tata Group and is on a path towards double-digit EBIT margin. It seeks to be positive cash net-of-debt by 2025.

In the primary market, the three-day IPO of Nureca was subscribed 5.5 times till 4.30 PM on day 1 of the issue.

Global markets

Global shares rose for the 11th day in a row to hit a fresh peak on optimism about the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines and new fiscal aid from Washington, while tensions in the Middle East drove oil to a 13-month high.

With China and Hong Kong markets closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, Japan's Nikkei led the way, climbing 1.9 per cent to reclaim the 30,000-point level for the first time in more than three decades. E-mini futures for the S&P 500 were also higher, up 0.4 per cent, although U.S. stock markets will be closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.

In Europe, shares scaled one-year highs on Monday with the pan-European STOXX 600 up 0.7 per cent.

Oil joined equity markets in pushing higher, reaching its highest level since January 2020. Brent crude rose 1.6 per cent to $63.41 a barrel. US crude oil gained 2.1 per cent to $60.74.

In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin recovered some of its overnight weakness to trade down 2.3 per cent at $47,539.49, below a record high of $49,714.66.