Market Wrap Podcast, May 21: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Domestic equity indices clocked their best-weekly gains since Budget week as bulls charged ahead on the last day of the week amid multiple triggers. Sentiment on the Street turned bullish on reports Centre is working on another round of stimulus with focus on cheaper loans to MSMEs, employment generation across rural and urban areas, and reduction in cost of capital.

Add to it, healthy quarterly results from India's largest public sector bank, State Bank of India, further bolstered sentiment. The lender's net profit zoomed over 80 per cent to Rs 6,451 crore in Q4FY21 as it set aside lower provisions and expected asset quality to improve going forward.

Supported by a rally in other financial stocks, coupled with favourable global cues, the BSE barometer of 30-shares ended at 50,540 levels, up 976 points or 1.9 per cent. On NSE, the Nifty50 index advanced 269 points to settle above the crucial level of 15,150-level at 15,175. With today's astounding rally, the Nifty index is up 3.4 per cent this week while the Sensex has gained 4 per cent.

SBI was the second best gainer on the Sensex today, up 4 per cent, while IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the other top gainers, up between 3 per cent and 4.5 per cent. All these stocks contributed nearly 680 points towards the Sensex's total gains today.

On the downside, Dr Reddy's Labs and Power Grid on the Sensex, and Eicher Motors, Indian Oil Corporation, Grasim, and SBI Life on the Nifty were the only laggards on the indices, down up to 0.3 per cent.

During the week, IndusInd Bank surged 14 per cent, SBI (11 per cent), M&M (10.5 per cent), HDFC Bank (8 per cent), and ICICI Bank (7.5 per cent).

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel remained the biggest loser of the week, down 5 per cent, followed by Britannia, Tata Steel, ITC, and JSW Steel, down up to 2 per cent.

Financial indices -- Nifty Bank, Private Bank, PSU Bank, and Financial Services -- outperformed on the NSE today, up between 3-3.5 per cent. With today's gains, all the banking indices are up over 7 per cent for the week.

Meanwhile, all other sectoral indices settled up to 1 per cent higher.

In the broader markets, the S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices hit their respective record highs today. While the MidCap index touched 21,541-mark, the SmallCap index scaled 21,219 in the intra-day deals. Both these indices ended 0.8 per cent and 0.65 per cent higher, respectively.

Individually, Adani Transmission today surpassed the other group company Adani Ports to become the second most valuable among the Gautam Adani-led Group companies after its shares got locked in the 5 per cent upper circuit band.

With Rs 1.6 trillion market capitalisation, Adani Transmission has replaced Adani Port & SEZ, which has an m-cap of Rs 1.57 trillion. Adani Green Energy remains the most valuable Adani Group company with market-cap of Rs 2.01 trillion.

>> Shares of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) rallied 8 per cent and hit a 52-week high of Rs 288.15 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Friday after reporting many-fold jump in its March quarter net profit to Rs 3,018 crore on the back of inventory gains and rise in refining margins. The state-owned oil marketing company had a net profit of Rs 27 crore in Q4FY20.

>> On the flipside, shares of sugar manufacturers traded weak on Friday after the government slashed subsidy on sugar exports from Rs 6,000 per tonne to Rs 4,000 per tonne with immediate effect in view of firm global prices.

Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Industries, Bajaj Hindustan Sugar, Dhampur Sugar Mills, Dwarikesh Sugar Industries, Balrampur Chini Mills, Uttam Sugar Mills and Avadh Sugar Mills were down 3 per cent to 5 per cent on the BSE. Praj Industries, engaged in the business of process and project engineering, dipped 8 per cent to Rs 350 in intra-day trade today.

Global markets
 

European stocks held steady on Friday as Swiss luxury goods maker Richemont jumped after its results, but a slide in London-listed shares and worries about inflation dampened early enthusiasm.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was flat, with British stocks falling about half a per cent.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei was up 0.8 per cent and Australia's S&P/ASX200 gained 0.15 per cent. South Korea's Kospi and China CSI300 indices, however, slipped 0.2 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.

Top news at this hour

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will transfer Rs 99,122 crore as surplus to the central government for the accounting period of nine months ended March 31, 2021. The transfer takes into account maintaining the Contingency Risk Buffer at 5.50 per cent of the RBI's economic capital.

The Supreme Court has upheld a Indian government notification to invoke personal guarantees of the promoters whose companies defaulted on bank loans. The Supreme Court ruling will now allow banks to file personal bankruptcies against several top Indian promoters whose companies have been sent to the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) for debt resolution.