Market Wrap, March 26: Here’s all that happened in the markets today

Breaking away from two-straight sessions of bear hammering, bulls were back in action on Dalal Street. Parked near the day’s high, the benchmark indices ended Friday’s session with over one per cent gains amid healthy buying in metal, financial, and auto stocks.

The Nifty Metal index ended nearly 4 per cent higher, while the Nifty Financial Services, FMCG, and Auto indices ended with around 2 per cent gains. Realty, bank, pharma and IT indices, meanwhile, advanced up to 1.5 per cent.

Among the benchmark indices, the frontline S&P BSE Sensex closed with gains of 568 points, or 1.17 per cent, at 49,008 level. The broader Nifty, on the other hand, reclaimed the 14,500-mark on a closing basis and settled at 14,507 level, up 182.4 points or 1.27 per cent.

Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints, HUL, Titan Company, Bajaj Auto, and HDFC were leading the list of gainers on the Sensex, up between 2.7 per cent and 4.4 per cent. Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, and Adani Ports were the additional gainers on the Nifty with up to 6 per cent returns today.

On the downside, PowerGrid, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Maruti Suzuki, UPL, and TCS declined the most on the benchmark indices, down up to 2 per cent.

Debuting at the bourses, shares of Kalyan Jewellers listed at at Rs 73.90, 15 per cent below its issue price of Rs 87 per share on the BSE today. The stock, however, reversed losses and hit a high of Rs 81 in the intra-day trade before closing at Rs 75.3.

Those of Suryoday Small Finance Bank listed at a 4 per cent discount, at Rs 292 on the BSE, as against an issue price of Rs 305. The stock hit an intra-day low of Rs 271 but ended at Rs 276.

Recently listed Laxmi Organic, however, jumped 18 per cent to Rs 194 in intra-day trade after foreign portfolio investors bought over three million equity shares worth about Rs 50 crore of the company via the open market. On Thursday, Goldman Sachs India Fund Limited and Plutus Wealth Management LLP purchased a combined 3.17 million equity shares of Laxmi Organic Industries for Rs 49 crore. The FPIs purchased these shares at an average price of Rs 155.60 per share on the NSE.

That apart, shares of Tata Group companies rallied up to 6 per cent on the BSE today after the Supreme Court pronounced its verdict in favour of Tata Sons in the high-profile Tata vs Mistry case. The top court ruled in favour of Tata Sons, allowing its appeals and dismissing the Pallonji Group’s plea. Among individual stocks, Tata Steel rallied 6 per cent on the BSE while Tata Steel Bsl, Indian Hotels, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Titan Company, Tata Coffee, Tata Investment Corporation and Tata Communications ended higher in the range of 3 per cent to 5 per cent.

In another corporate development, shares of M&M ended 1 per cent higher at Rs 801, after hitting a low of Rs 792 on the BSE, as Mahindra and Mahindra’s board of directors appointed Anish Shah as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company, effective April 2, 2021. Pawan Goenka will retire as the MD and CEO, and Member of the Board of Directors of M&M.

Overall, the S&P BSE MidCap index ended 1.66 per cent higher, while the SmallCap counterpart closed with a per cent gain.

In the primary market, Barbeque Nation Hospitality’s IPO was subscribed by nearly 6 times till about 4 PM on the last day of the issue.

Global markets

Asian stocks recovered from a three-month low on Friday, as investors focused more on optimism about the global economic recovery than rising tensions between the West and China.

MSCI’s ex-Japan Asia index rose 1.43 per cent, as the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.53 per cent, snapping a three-day losing streak. Japan’s Nikkei also rose 1.47 per cent.

In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.8 per cent. S&P 500 and Nasdaq Futures, meanwhile, were trading with 0.25 per cent gain each.

Note: Markets shall remain closed on Monday, March 29, on account of Holi.