Market Wrap, Jan 12: Here's all that happened in the markets today

A stellar rally in Reliance Industries, State Bank of India, and Bharti Airtel lifted benchmark indices to fresh peaks for the 12th straight session on Tuesday. After a weak start owing to losses in the banking counters, the S&P BSE Sensex and Nifty staged a smart recovery to hit record peaks of 49,569 and 14,591, respectively in the intra-day session. On the technical charts, the Relative Strength Indicator and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator supported the rally with Nifty heading towards 14,800 levels.

The S&P BSE Sensex settled 248 points, or 0.5 per cent, higher at 49,517 levels on the BSE. Bharti Airtel and SBI each surged 4 per cent on the Sensex today. Reliance Industries ended at 1-week high of Rs 1,960 on the BSE, having surged over 3 per cent today. Another heavyweight, HDFC Bank also hit fresh record high of Rs 1,487 on the BSE and ended 2 per cent higher.

ITC, NTPC, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and Bajaj Finance were some of the other top performing stocks on the Sensex today, up between 1 per cent and 3 per cent. On the downside, Asian Paints, Titan, HUL, and Nestle slipped up to 3 per cent, putting a lid on gains.

On the NSE, the Nifty50 closed above the 14,550-mark, at 14,563.45, up 79 points or 0.5 per cent.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index ended the day at 19,209 level, up 0.4 per cent. It hit a fresh life-time high of 19,301 in the intra-day session. The S&P BSE SmallCap index, on the other hand, closed at 18,923 levels, up 0.25 per cent.

Notable stocks that participated in the broader market rally include those of Tata Group. Tata Chemicals, Tata Consumer Products, Tata Elxsi, Tata Investment Corporation and Voltas – from the group hit record highs on the BSE in the intra-day trade today. TCS hit an all-time high on Monday, while Tata Motors, which has rallied 26 per cent in the past two trading days, hit fresh 52-week high level.

Meanwhile, shares of GAIL surged 4% to hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 143 on the BSE after the company said its board will meet on Friday, January 15, to consider buyback of shares and interim dividend.  

On the sectoral front, Nifty PSU Bank index leaped 6 per cent on the NSE, shrugging off NPA concerns highlighted by the Reserve Bank of India a day earlier. The sentiment in the sector turned positive on report that the government may propose to form an investment company under the Union Budget of 2021. J&K Bank and Bank of Baroda each surged 10 per cent on the NSE today. Besides, Bank of India, Canara Bank, and Indian Bank gained up to 7 per cent.

That apart, Nifty Realty index ended at a 35-month high of 339 level, up 3 per cent, while Nifty Auto index closed at 28-month high of 10,120 levels, up 1.3 per cent.

In another development, state-owned operator BSNL has excluded any foreign vendors from its 4G core network tender, inviting applications exclusively from Indian manufacturers, a Bloomberg report said.

That apart, the Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the implementation of the three contested farm laws deregulating India's agriculture markets, saying it will give further orders.

On the Coronavirus front, the Union Health Ministry said today that four more coronavirus vaccines are in the pipeline and may get approval from Drug Controller General of India for emergency use authorization soon. These are by Zydus Cadila; Russia's Sputnik V; Hyderabad-based firm Biological E; and Pune-based Genova Pharmaceuticals. That apart, the government said the Covid-19 vaccination process in the country will take more than one year to complete.

Global markets

Consolidation was the theme in Asia where MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.5 per cent after touching an all-time high on Monday, led by a 2.6 per cent drop in South Korea as investors took some profit from a soaring Kospi.

Drugmakers lifted Japan's Nikkei to a fresh three-decade high after reports of another effective COVID-19 treatment. It ended 0.09 per cent higher.

In the commodities market, Oil hit an 11-month high of $57 a barrel on Tuesday as tighter supply and expectations of a drop in U.S. inventories offset concerns over climbing coronavirus cases globally.