Stock market ends five-day winning streak
At close, Sensex was down 609.28 points, or 0.82%, at 73,730.16. Meanwhile, Nifty opened higher at 22,620.40 and touched a low of 22,419.90 in intraday trades.
Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty witnessed new heights on Wednesday as participants took note of continuously improving macroeconomic indicators and positive trends in global markets.
The S&P BSE Sensex settled 403.29 points or 0.87 per cent higher at 46,666.46 with HDFC, being the top gainer, jumped over 3 per cent.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty climbed 114.85 points or 0.85 per cent to 13,682.70, record closing for both the benchmarks.
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Both the indices also marked their all-time intraday highs of 46,704.97 and 13,692.35, respectively.
Apart from the HDFC, top gainers on the Sensex charts included ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Titan, Asian Paints, Mahindra and Mahindra, TCS and others.
On the other hand, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra and SBI were among the major laggards.
Asian bourses closed broadly higher amid hopes that COVID-19 vaccines and economic stimulus by governments around the world will revive economic growth.
Market experts said Indian equities continued to trade at record high levels, gaining confidence from improving domestic macroeconomic indicators and positive global market outlook.
SBI in a research report raised India’s GDP growth forecast to (-) 7.4 per cent in FY21 from previously predicted (-) 10.9 per cent.
S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday raised India’s growth projection for the current fiscal to (-) 7.7 per cent from (-) 9 per cent estimated earlier on rising demand and falling COVID-19 infection rates.
Prior to that, Fitch had revised its growth forecast for India to (-) 9.4 per cent, from (-) 10.5 per cent on signs of economic revival. Similarly, Moody’s upgraded its forecast to (-)10.6 per cent from its previous expectations of (-)11.5 per cent.
On the forex market front, the Indian rupee settled 5 paise higher at 73.58 against the US dollar.
Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.47 per cent to USD 50.93 per barrel.
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