Market Wrap Podcast, May 27: Here's all that happened in the markets today

Fag-end buying in public sector banks, IT, and metal counters ahead of the expiry of May derivatives contracts propelled the benchmark Nifty50 index to record closing high on Thursday. From an intra-day low of 15,272, the index leaped 66 points to settle at 15,338. Minutes before closing, the index hit a high of 15,384.5 levels.

The BSE barometer of 30-shares, meanwhile, ended 98 points, or 0.19 per cent, higher at 51,115 levels as losses in HDFC, Bajaj Finance, HUL, and Bharti Airtel were offset by gains in Kotak Bank, Reliance Industries, TCS, Axis Bank, and State Bank of India. The index hit an intra-day high of 51,283.

Overall, Shree Cement, SBI, Bajaj Auto, Kotak Bank, Tech Mahindra, Ultratech Cement, Axis Bank, and Tata Steel were the top large-cap gainers, up between 2 per cent and 4 per cent, while HDFC, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, and Indian Oil Corporation were the top laggards, down up to 2.7 per cent.

The rally in the broader market space continued unabated. The S&P BSE MidCap index added 0.54 per cent while the SmallCap counter gained 0.34 per cent.

Sectorally, the Nifty PSU Bank remained the top performing index on the NSE today, up around 3 per cent. This was followed by the Nifty IT index which grew 1.2 per cent. Earlier in the day, Wipro, Birlasoft, Coforge, Firstsource Solutions, Mindtree, Persistent Systems and Sonata Software hit their respective record highs in the intra-day trade while Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Larsen & Toubro Infotech advanced in the range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent.

The Nifty Bank, Private Bank, and Metal indices, too, added between 1 per cent and 1.2 per cent.

On the downside, the Nifty Realty and Pharma indices slipped 1 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.

Global markets
 

World stocks were pinned down on Thursday as investors awaited US data expected to offer clues on inflation. The Euro STOXX 600 lost 0.2 per cent, with German shares down 0.5 per cent and London's main index making slim losses. France gained 0.1 per cent.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 49 countries, was flat. Earlier, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan clawed back losses to trade flat at 695.37.

Japan's Nikkei, South Korea's Kospi, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.3 per cent, 0.1 per cent, and 0.2 per cent, respectively.

A look at the top developments and buzzing stocks of the day:

>> Shares of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) rose 4 per cent and hit a 52-week high of Rs 488 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Thursday after the state-owned oil marketing company's board recommended a final dividend of Rs 58 per equity share, including one-time special dividend of Rs 35 per equity share for the financial year ended March 31, 2021. In the past one month, the stock has outperformed the market by gaining 15 per cent, as compared to 5.5 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

The stock, however, erased all the gains and ended 0.75 per cent lower after a Reuters report said the PSU's divestment could be pushed back by a quarter to December 2021.

>> Those of Sun Pharma ended 0.5 per cent lower ahead of the announcement of its March quarter results. The pharma company, in a post-market hour development, reported net profit of Rs 894 crore, much lower than Street estimates of Rs 1,443 crore.

>> Earlier in the day, Strides Pharma and Cadila Health, each, reported net profit of Rs 46 crore and Rs 679 crore, respectively.

>> Meanwhile, Paytm, India’s leading digital payments provider, is aiming to raise about Rs 21,800 crore ($3 billion) in an initial public offering late this year, a Bloomberg report said. If successful, Paytm’s initial share sale would surpass Coal India Ltd.’s offering, which raised more than Rs 15,000 crore in 2010 in the country’s largest IPO so far. The One97 board is expected to meet this Friday to formally approve the IPO.

>> Lastly, the RBI's annual report released on Thursday suggested that the rally in domestic stocks despite an estimated 8 per cent contraction in FY21 GDP poses the risk of a bubble, adding that the widening gap between stretched asset prices relative to prospects for recovery in real economic activity has emerged as a global policy concern.

Moreover, the report said liquidity injected to support economic recovery can lead to unintended consequences in the form of inflationary asset prices and, thus, noted that liquidity support cannot be expected to remain unrestrained and indefinite.