Indices end at record closing; Sensex up 394 pts at 49,792, Nifty at 14,645

Wednesday,   20-Jan-2021   04:07 PM (IST)

An upbeat mood in the global markets, ahead of the swearing-in of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States, catapulted benchmark indices to fresh record highs on Wednesday. That apart, expectations of hefty US spending after US Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen urged lawmakers to "act big" to save the economy further bolstered sentiment. Domestically, gains in heavyweights like Reliance Industries, HDFC, Infosys, TCS, and ICICI Bank, too, provided the necessary support. In the intra-day session, the S&P BSE Sensex hit a new peak of 49,874, surging over 450 points. The index eventually settled at 49,792 levels, up 394 points or 0.8 per cent. Tech Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries, Infosys, and M&M gained between 2 per cent and 3 per cent, and ended as th top performing stocks on the 30-share index. On the downside, NTPC, PowerGrid, HDFC Bank, ITC, and Nestle settled as top laggards, down up to 1 per cent. It's NSE counterpart, Nifty50, surpassed the 19,650-mark and hit a fresh record high of 14,665. The index ended with gains of 123.5 points, or 0.85 per cent, at 14,645.  Sectorally, all except Nifty FMCG index ended the day in the green on the NSE with the FMCG index closing down 0.16 per cent. On the upside, Nifty IT, Auto, and PSU Bank indices closed with gains of over 2 per cent each. Among individual counters, Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Elxsi – hit their respective new highs on the NSE today, whereas Wipro, Mindtree, Mphasis and Coforge surged up to 5 per cent. In the auto index, Tata Motors and tyre stocks were the top gainers on the index. Among the OEMs, Tata Motors hit yet another 28-month high of Rs 278 on the NSE, while Ceat, JK Tyre, MRF, and Apollo Tyres advancing in the range of 4 per cenr to 15 per cent. In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index settled 1 per cent higher, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index gained 0.58 per cent.