Market Wrap Podcast, Aug 16: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Only a handful of stocks, namely RIL, Tata Steel and private lenders drove the benchmark indices higher on Monday, highlighting the growing polarised nature of the markets. Even at the overall level, market breadth was skewed in favour of sellers, with the advance-decline ratio at 1:2. The broader markets, meanwhile, continued to underperform. BSE Smallcap index lost 0.57 per cent and BSE Midcap 0.18 per cent.

Benchmark indices, on the other hand, surged to fresh record high levels, defying global market mood. The BSE barometer Sensex hit a new high of 55,681 in trade and settled at 55,583, up 145 points or 0.26 per cent. Meanwhile, NSE Nifty closed shop 34 points or 0.21 per cent higher at 16,563. It had jumped to a fresh peak of 16,589. In the 30-pack Sensex, 14 stocks ended in the green and in the 50-pack Nifty, only 21.

On the sectoral front, led by gains in Tata Steel, the Nifty Metal pack rallied 1.48 per cent. It had hit a new high in intra-day session. Financial Services and FMCG were the only other sectors that gained. That said, Nifty Media and Nifty PSU bank indices witnessed hefty losses.

Nifty Auto was another sector that lost nearly 1 per cent as investors assesed the impact of Ola's foray in the two-wheeler space. They believe Ola's entry is likely to weight on manufacturers of internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered two-wheelers like Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motors who also have aggressive plans to tap into the segment. All three stocks lost between 1-3 per cent on NSE today.

That said, even as the earnings season came to and end, there was no dearth of stock-specific activity with listing of four stocks on bourses. Most-subscribed among the lot Devyani International fared the best. The stock debuted at 57 per cent premium at Rs 141. It did witness some profit taking and ended 37 per cent higher over the issue price of Rs 90 per share.

Krsnaa Diagnostics, meanwhile, erased half of the gains as it closed 4 per cent higher over the issue price of Rs 954. It had listed at a 7 per cent premium at Rs 1,025 on BSE. Exxaro Tiles after opening 5 per cent higher over issue price, extended gains and settled 10 per cent up at Rs 132.25 on the BSE. It had listed at Rs 126 against the issue price of Rs 120.

Windlas Biotech, however, disappointed the IPO investors. It opened at a discount of 5 per cent and later extended losses to end over 11 per cent lower at Rs 406.70.

Among large-cap players, Reliance Industries and D-Mart operator Avenue Supermarts were in high demand.

Reliance rose over 1 per cent to Rs 2,172.45 on the BSE after a Bloomberg report suggested that Saudi Aramco is in advanced talks for an all-stock deal to acquire a stake in RIL’s oil refining and chemicals business. The Middle Eastern energy firm is discussing the purchase of a roughly 20% stake in the Reliance unit for about $20 billion to $25 billion in Aramco’s shares, the report said. The stock had added nearly 3 per cent to Rs 2,202 in intra-day deals.

Avenue Supermart shares, meanwhile, soared to a new high of Rs 3,655.95 in Monday's session and with this, its market cap pipped that of  Axis Bank and L&T. The stock closed the day, up over 1 per cent and a market cap of Rs 2.36 trillion.

Lastly, on the global market front, US futures and European stocks traded lower. S&P500 and Nasdaq futures were down 0.2 per cent, indicating a tepid Wall Street start while STOXX Europe 600 lost 0.5 per cent.