Sensex ends 1030 pts up in extended trade, Nifty at 14,982

Wednesday,   24-Feb-2021   05:14 PM (IST)

India's largest stock exchange, the National Stock Exchange (NSE), abruptly shut its cash and derivatives segment, following a glitch which froze stock prices, triggering panic among investors. Trading was halted at 11:40 am and resumed only at 3:30 pm. The glitch, which came a day ahead of the monthly F&O expiry for the February series, caused massive volatility during the last hour of trade. The same is expected to continue on Thursday as well. Post resumption of trade, both the Sensex and Nifty witnessed bouts of volatility as investors scurried to square off their positions, and execute morning trades. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex zoomed to day's high during the fag-end of the session, soaring 1,130 points in the intra-day trade. The index ended 1,030 points, or 2 per cent, higher at 50,782 levels. HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, and HDFC, up in the range of 3 per cent and 5 per cent, were the top gainers among the 23 stocks that ended in the green. On the contrary, Dr Reddy's Labs, TCS, Su Pharma, Asian Paints and Power Grid declined between 0.5 per cent and 1.4 per cent and closed as top laggards on the index. Weightage-wise, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank supported the index. Overall, market breadth on the BSE remained titled towards advances with over 1,850 stocks settling higher, compared with around 1,000 stocsk that slipped today. On the NSE, the Nifty50 closed above the 14,950-mark, up 272 points or 1.9 per cent at 14,982 levels. The index hit an intra-day high of 15,009. In the broader markets, the S&P BSE SmallCap index settled 1 per cent higher on the back of gains in IIFL Securities, Manali Petrochemicals, Religare Broking, Dredging Corporation of India, and Nava Bharat Ventures, that gained in the range of 11 per cent and 20 per cent. The S&P BSEMidCap index, on the other hand, ended 0.77 per cent higher. Sectorally, the Nifty Bank and Private Bank indices closed 4 per cent higher each after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government has lifted embargo on grant of government business to private banks. Federal Bank, Bandhan Bank, IDFC First Bank, and IndusInd Bank remained top performers on the Nifty Private Bank index. That apart, the Nifty Financial Services, Realty, and Media indices closed between 1 per cent and 2.5 per cent higher. On the downside, the Nifty IT was the only index that ended in the red, down 0.11 per cent.