Domestic Markets closed in Green; Sensex ends above 50,700 & Nifty 50 crosee 14,900 mark

Benchmark domestic benchmarks climbed marginally on Friday, February 5, 2021, to hit fresh record highs. The Sensex and Nifty advanced for the fifth straight session amid positive global market cues. The Sensex ends above 50,700 level while the Nifty crossed 14,900 mark.

The S&P BSE Sensex closed 117.34 points or 0.23 per cent up at 50,731.63. The Nifty 50 index rose 28.60 points or 0.19 per cent to 14,924.25. The Nifty Bank gained 309.70 points or 0.88 per cent to close at 35,654.50.

The broader market witnessed profit booking. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.93 per cent while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.28 per cent.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1332 shares rose and 1644 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index, 23 shares gained and 27 shares fell. The top five gainers on Nifty 50 index were SBI (up 11.32 per cent), Tata Steel (up 4.89 per cent), Divi's Laboratory (up 4.54 per cent), Kotak Bank (up 4.13 per cent) and Dr Reddy's (up 2.83 per cent). The top five losers were Axis Bank (down 3.06 per cent), Bharti Airtel (down 2.70 per cent), Tata Motors (down 2.36 per cent), UPL (down 1.93 per cent) and Maruti (down 1.83 per cent).

COVID-19 Update

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 104,838,939 with 2,281,731 deaths. India reported 151,460 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 154,823 deaths while 104,96,308 patients have been discharged, data showed.

Policy Announcement

The meeting of the six-member Monetary Policy Committee headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das concluded this morning. The committee has kept interest rates unchanged, maintaining the repo rate at 4 per cent and reverse repo rate at 3.35 per cent. The MPC decided to continue with an accommodative stance of monetary policy as long as necessary, at least through the current financial year and into next year to revive growth on a durable basis and mitigate the impact of Covid-19, Das said.

Inflation has been better than what was expected in December meeting and eased below the tolerance level of 6 per cent. The RBI projected GDP growth of 10.5% in FY22 for India while the projection for CPI-based inflation was revised to 5.2 per cent for Q4FY21. The latest Economic Survey said there are expectations of a rebound of the economy with 11 per cent growth in the next fiscal.

President Joe Biden's COVID-19 relief proposal

On the stimulus front, Democrats are moving forward with President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal. Republicans have countered with a more modest $618 billion package, which includes new stimulus checks of $1,000 per person.