Market Wrap, Dec 14: Here’s all that happened in the markets today

The domestic equity market started the week on a strong note as the benchmark indices scaled fresh lifetime highs amid broad-based buying.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended at a fresh closing peak of 46,253, up 154 points, or 0.34 per cent while NSE’s Nifty ended 44 points, or 0.33 per cent higher at 13,558 levels – its record closing high.

Volatility index, India VIX, gained over 3 per cent to 19 levels.

ICICI Bank, L&T, ONGC, and TCS were among the top contributors to the Sensex’s gain while HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries (RIL) were the biggest drags.

The highlight of the day was, however, Burger King India, whose shares zoomed a whopping 131 per cent to Rs 138.40 on the BSE on the listing day against the issue price of Rs 60. On the NSE, the stock surged 125 per cent to Rs 135.

Among other newsmakers of the day, the S&P BSE Capital Goods index hit a fresh 52-week high of 17,963, up 1 per cent on expectation of sustained growth momentum.

Ramco Systems rallied 8 per cent to scale fresh 52-week high of Rs 616 on the BSE in the intra-day trade after the company said its various business units have signed large multi-million dollar agreements with multiple companies based in Europe, Asia and America. The stock eventually settled at Rs 607 apiece.

Meanwhile, BNP Paribas has maintained an overweight rating on Indian equities for calendar year 2021 (CY21) and expects the S&P BSE Sensex to hit 50,500 levels going ahead – up nearly 9.5 per cent from the current levels. Besides India, BNP Paribas remains overweight on China, Indonesia and Korea.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index rallied 0.79 per cent today to 17,659 while NSE’s Nifty added 0.74 per cent to 17,683 points.

Among sectoral indices on the NSE, barring Nifty Auto and Nifty Realty, all other indices settled in the green. Nifty PSU Bank index surged 1.77 per cent to 1,860.75 levels while Nifty Metal added 1.38 per cent to 3,189.50 points.

On the macro front, the wholesale price index-based inflation rate rose to a nine-month high of 1.55 per cent in November even as the rate of food price rise narrowed substantially to 3.94 per cent from 6.37 per cent in October.

Global markets

World stocks began a busy week with guarded gains as investors gauged the chance of added US fiscal and monetary stimulus, while the British pound rose in relief as a last-gasp extension to Brexit talks dodged a hard divorce.

In commodities, oil prices rose, pushing Brent back above $50 a barrel, buoyed by hopes that a rollout of coronavirus vaccines will lift global fuel demand.

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