Market Wrap, Feb 8: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Winning streak extended at the bourses into sixth straight day on Monday as investor optimism stayed elevated. An across-the-board buying helped frontline indices scale fresh record highs in the intra-day trade, before settling at new closing peaks. M-cap of all the listed firms on the BSE also hit a record Rs 203 trillion in value.

Among key indices, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex settled tad below the 51,350-mark, at 51,349 levels today, up 617 points or 1.22 per cent, aided by buying in M&M (up 7.4 per cent), Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Tech M, and Bharti Airtel. On the downside, HUL (down 1.5 per cent), Bajaj Finance (down 0.7 per cent), and ITC (down 0.5 per cent) remained top laggards.

Weightage-wise, Infosys, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, M&M, and TCS contributed around 408-points towards overall gains on the index.

It's NSE counterpart, meanwhile, clinched the 15,100-mark on the closing basis and settled at 15,116 levels, up 191.5 points or 1.28 per cent. M&M, Hindalco, Shree Cement, JSW Steel, and Bharti Airtel were among the 40 of the 50 constituents that ended the day in the green.

The Sensex and the Nifty indices hit record peaks of 51,523 and 15,160, respectively.

In the broader markets, small-cap peers outran their mid and large-cap peers today. The S&P BSE SmallCap index ended 1.53 per cent higher, while MidCap index was up 1.5 per cent at close.

Meanwhile, largely all the Nifty sectoral indices ended the day in the green, barring the Nifty FMCG index (down 0.4 per cent), and the Nifty PSU Bank index (down 1 per cent). On the upside, the Nifty Auto and the Nifty Metal indices were the top gainers (up 3 per cent each).

Among individual stocks, shares of Mahindra & Mahindra rallied 10 per cent to Rs 952 on the BSE in the intra-day trade today, but ended over 7 per cent higher, after the firm reported a healthy operational performance in the October-December quarter. The stock was close to it's all-time high level of Rs 992 hit on August 30, 2018.

That apart, shares of Bajaj Finserv hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 10,113, up 4 per cent on the BSE, in the intra-day trade on Monday. In the past six trading days, the stock has rallied 16 per cent after the government proposed to increase foreign direct investment in the insurance sector to 74 per cent, a move aimed at attracting overseas players. It ended 3 per cent higher at Rs 10,032 apiece on the BSE today.

Shree Cement, meanwhile, joined the elite club of companies with Rs 1-trillion market capitalization on the BSE, after its share price hit a new high of Rs 28,059 on Monday. The company, engaged in the manufacture and sale of cement and cement related products, surpassed its previous high of Rs 27,356, touched on February 4, 2021.

On the earnings front, Aditya Birla Fashion reported a net profit of Rs 59.4 crore for the December quarter, compared with a net loss of Rs 37.6 crore in the previous year period. It's revenue, however, declined around 20 per cent YoY to Rs 2,076 crore.

Global markets
 

European shares rose on Monday, after their best weekly gain in nearly three months. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4 per cent. Moreover, Frankfurt shares rose 0.6 per cent, outperforming European peers in early trading.

In Asia, shares hovered near record highs on Monday while oil surpassed $60 a barrel.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5 per cent. Japan's Nikkei jumped about 2 per cent while Australian shares ended 0.6 per cent higher. Chinese shares advanced with the blue-chip CSI300 index up 1.3 per cent.

Dow Jones Futures were last up 88 points indicating a positive start on Wall Street later today.