Market Wrap, Jan 5: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Bulls wrestled back control in the Indian markets in Tuesday's volatile session and helped benchmark indices scale fresh lifetime highs after a subdued first half. Sharp gains in banking and information technology scrips helped indices settle 0.5 per cent higher. That apart, the Finance Ministry's monthly economic report highlighted that India has been witnessing a 'V-shaped' recovery since June and sustained improvement in high frequency indicators ignite optimism of an improved performance in the second half of the year.

On the global front, the UK government's announcement to roll out a new $6.2 billion support package for businesses struggling to cope with a third national lockdown accelerated buying momentum in the last hour of trade.

The frontline S&P BSE Sensex ended the choppy session near record high levels of 48,486 on the BSE, at 48,438 levels, up 261 points, or 0.54 per cent. HDFC twins, Axis Bank, TCS, and ICICI Bank remained the top contributors towards the index's gain, providing support of nearly 180 points.

Axis Bank ended the session as top Sensex gainers, up 6 per cent at close, followed by gains in HDFC (2.7 per cent), IndusInd Bank (2.7 per cent), and TCS (1.7 per cent). On the downside, heavyweights like Bajaj Finance (down 1.5 per cent), Reliance Industries (1.2 per cent), and Bajaj Finserv (1 per cent) capped gains.

The Nifty50, on the other hand, added 66.6 points, or 0.47 per cent, to close at 14,199 levels. The index hit a record peak of 14,215.6.

Today was the indices' 10th straight session of gains.

On the sectoral front, Nifty IT index settled on the NSE as top performer, up 2.6 per cent. Individually, shares of Tata Consultancy Services hit a new high of Rs 3,113 on the BSE today, rising over 2% in the intra-day deal. TCS is set to become the second listed company to enter the Rs 12-trillion market-cap club. At close, the firm's m-cap stood at Rs 11.6 trillion.

Nifty Bank, on the other hand, ended at a fresh closing peak in a year, up around 2 per cent, at 31,722. Meanwhile, the Nifty Metal index, down 1.4 per cent, ended the day as top loser.

In the broader market, mid-cap stocks continued to outrun their large-cap peers. The S&P BSE MidCap index ended 1.4 per cent higher at 18,676 level. The SmallCap counterpart ended 0.7 per cent up at 18,641 level.

On the Covid-19 front, India reported the lowest count of new cases on Monday, adding little over 16,000 cases. Amid this, The Union Ministry of Health said that it can introduce COVID-19 vaccine within 10 days of Emergency Use Authorisation.

Global markets

Asian shares edged lower on Tuesday amid uncertainty about Senate runoffs in Georgia. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.05 per cent, pulling back from a record high. Australian stocks fell 0.26 per cent. Chinese shares erased early losses and rose 0.52 per cent.

Japanese shares lost 0.34 per cent after a spokesman said the government will reach a decision on a state of emergency for Tokyo and surrounding cities on Thursday to curb coronavirus infections.

In Europe, stocks slipped as losses in defensive sectors offset gains in oil and retail stocks. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.2 per cent.

Dow Jones Futures were last trading 50 points higher indicating green start on Wall Street later today.