Market Wrap Podcast, July 14: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Defying a weak global setup, benchmark indices ended higher helped by strong investor interest in the IT names. Sensex jumped nearly 300 points from day's low to settle 134 points or 0.25 per cent higher at 52,904.05 while NSE Nifty ended the day at 15,853.95, up 41.60 points or 0.26 per cent.

Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Infosys were the top performers in the 30-pack Sensex while Maruti, HUL and Nestle were the worst laggards. Overall, the advance-decline ratio for Sensex stocks was 1:1.

Strong interest in technology shares amid expectations of strong results by key players from the space, namely Infosys, Wipro, pushed the Nifty IT index 3.16 per cent higher, making it the best perfoming sectoral index on NSE. Nifty Pharma, Nifty Media and Nifty Metals were other indices that shut shop in the green. On the flip side, investors booked profits in realty stocks, driving Nifty Realty 0.95 per cent lower.

In the broader market space, the BSE Smallcap and BSE Midcap index performed largely in tandem with Sensex. After hitting fresh record high of 26328.24 earlier today, the BSE Smallcap index ended 0.26 per cent higher. At the same time, Nifty Midcap index rose 0.21 per cent.

That said, the retail investors seemed hooked to Zomato's over Rs 9,000 crore IPO that opened for subscription today. The 10 per cent quota reserved for them was subscribed a whopping 2.6 times by 4.45 pm. Overall, the IPO sailed through on Day 1 itself, garnering 1.02 times subscription at the time of writing this report.

Amid all this, the fears of inflation spike playing spoilsport on Street persisted. The US consumer index rose to a 13-year high, pushing investors on the sidelines as they mulled how long could Fed's loose monetary policy could last. Back home, while WPI inflation eased to 12.07 per cent for June against 12.94 per cent in May owing to softening crude oil and food prices, it still was high.

Going into trade on Thursday, markets would first react to earnings announcements by IT major Infosys. The company posted Q1 profit of Rs 5,195 crore, up 23 per cent YoY although it missed the Street estimate of 27-30 per cent rise in the figure. The stock ended 2.07 per cent higher on BSE today. Further, the focus will be on other IT names like Wipro, L&T Tech and Tata Elxsi. Besides, Federal chair Jerome Powell's testimony to Congress would be keenly amid, especially amid increasing inflationary pressures.

On the stock-specific front, shares of Tata Metaliks jumped 8 per cent intra-day to settle 3 per cent up at Rs 1243.60 after the company reported a net profit of Rs 94.72 crore for the quarter as against a net loss of Rs 12.36 crore in the year-ago period.

Mindtree stock rallied 9 per cent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 2,728 in trade today on posting 61 per cent YoY increase in net profit at Rs 343.4 crore. It finally ended the day at Rs 2702.15, up 8.31 per cent.

Wipro jumped 7 per cent to Rs 561.60 ahead of its June quarter results on Thursday.

Steel Strips Wheels rallied 12 per cent to Rs 1144.40 on the BSE. The scrip gained for 2nd day today on bagging orders worth Rs 113 crore.