Sensex, Nifty at high point of the day; IT stocks rally

The domestic equity barometers hit the day's high in early afternoon trade. The Nifty inched towards the crucial 14,300 mark. All sectoral indices on the NSE were trading in the green.

At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, surged 485.46 points or 1.01% at 48,578.13. The Nifty 50 index rallied 154.2 points or 1.09% at 14,291.70.

The broader market was trading firm. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 1.04% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 1.09%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1925 shares rose and 991 shares fell. A total of 141 shares were unchanged.

Derivatives:

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of market's expectation of volatility over the near term, dropped 1.58% to 20.2875. The Nifty January 2021 futures were trading at 14,324.25, at a premium of 35.15 point compared with the spot at 14,289.10.

The Nifty option chain for 28 January 2021 expiry showed maximum Call OI of 19.1 lakh contracts at the 14,000 strike price. Maximum Put OI of 24.77 lakh contracts was seen at 13,000 strike price.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 382.30 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 989.50 crore in the Indian equity market on 7 January, provisional data showed.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 88,005,213 with 1,897,568 deaths. India reported 2,25,449 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,50,570 deaths while 1,00,37,398 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Economy:

The central government on Thursday projected that the country's economy will contract by 7.7% in the current fiscal year 2020-21, as per the first advance estimates of gross domestic product released by the National Statistical Office. The agriculture sector estimate for FY 2021 stood at 3.4%. Also, mining estimate stood at -12.4% for FY21 against 3.1%(YoY) and nominal GDP estimate stood at -4.2%.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index surged 2.23% to 25,814.70, snapping its two-day losing run. The IT index lost 2% in last two trading sessions.

L&T Infotech (up 3.76%), Wipro (up 3.68%), Tech Mahindra (up 3.29%), Infosys (up 2.15%), HCL Technologies (up 2.06%) and Mindtree (up 1.88%) were top gainers in IT segment.

Index major TCS was up 2.21%. It will announce its Q3 December 2020 result today.

Stocks in Spotlight:

NHPC rose 1.82% to Rs 25.20 after the National Comp Any Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved the company's Rs 165 crore resolution plan for taking over Jalpower Corporation as going concern.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) advanced 2.04% to Rs 759.60 after the company announced price increase for its personal & commercial range of vehicles from 8 January 2021. The prices of its range of personal and commercial vehicles will increase by around 1.9%, resulting in an increase of Rs 4,500-Rs 40,000, depending on the model and variant.

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