Market Wrap Podcast, Oct 11: Here's all that happened in the markets today

The Indian benchmark indices erased intraday gains after hitting fresh lifetime highs, but closed at fresh record levels on Monday. Supported by banking, auto, and realty stocks, the benchmarks Nifty50 and BSE Sensex had hit fresh record highs of 18,042 and 60,476, respectively. At close, the BSE Sensex was up 77 points at 60,136, and the Nifty rose 51 points to 17,946.

Tata Motors, Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, Grasim Industries and Power Grid Corp were among the major gainers on the Nifty. TCS, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Wipro were among the big losers. Volatility index, India VIX, meanwhile, closed 2.8 per cent higher.

On the sectoral front, the Nifty Bank index hit a new lifetime high of 38,495 in the intra-day trade before closing 1.4 per cent higher at 38,294 levels. The Nifty Auto index was the biggest gainer of the day, up 2.7 per cent. The auto sector continued its outperformance in expectation of demand revival during the festive season. The Nifty IT index declined the most, down over 3 per cent. The IT sector was under pressure as initial earnings releases failed to meet market expectations. Other gaining sectors included the metal, power and realty indices, which added around 1 percent each.

Among the broader markets, the BSE midcap and smallcap indices rose 0.6 percent, respectively. About 1,814 shares have advanced, while 1,375 shares declined, indicating a positive market breadth.

Coming to stock-specific moves, the shares of Reliance Industries surged over 2 per cent to fresh record high levels of 2,724. The stock kept the index buoyant, before ending the day 0.6 per cent lower. On Sunday the company announced two back-to-back acquisitions, namely the buyout of Norway-based solar panel manufacturer REC Solar Holdings and purchase of 40 per cent stake in Shapoorji Pallonji Group's Sterling & Wilson Solar. The shares of Sterling and Wilson Solar too ended over 6 per cent higher

Meanwhile, shares of Affle India rose 2.6 per cent after the company announced that it has received issue Notification for the grant of two patents from the US Patent & Trademark Office. However, the stock ended 0.8 per cent higher.

On the other hand, the stock of Tata Consultancy Services languished over 6 per cent as the company's revenue and margins missed market estimates.

That said, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC had a tepid debut on the stock exchanges, falling as much as 2.25 percent to a low of Rs 696 on the BSE from the issue price of Rs 712. The stock declined 1.7 percent to Rs 699 at the close on the BSE.

Going into trade on Tuesday, the markets will continue to focus on the companies' earnings for the quarter ended September. More than 50 companies will declare their quarterly numbers this week including Infosys, Wipro, Mindtree, HCL Technologies, HDFC Bank, and Avenue Supermarts. Lastly, global markets, stock-specific moves as well as news related to Covid-19 will be among other major triggers for investors.