Market wrap: Sensex rallies 367 pts, ends above 60,000; Nifty holds 17,900

Top headlines

• Sensex rallies 367 pts, ends above 60,000; Nifty holds 17,900
• Thermax surges 7% on Rs 546-crore order
• Talbros Automotive zooms 27% in 2 days as investor Vijay Kedia increases stake
• Future Retail falls 6% as Delhi High Court rejects plea to dismiss Amazon arbitration
• India's Services PMI at a three-month low of 55.5 in December amid Omicron fear

Market participants also expect the uncertain outlook to delay policy tightening by global central banks, keeping liquidity taps running for equity markets.

The Sensex settled at 60,223, up 367 points or 0.6 per cent. On the NSE, the Nifty50 marched past the 17,900 mark and closed at 17,925 levels, up 120 points or 0.67 per cent.

Technically, the Nifty has reached its hurdle zone of 18,000-18,100, where investors can look to trim their long position. Further, if the index manages to sustain above this resistance, it may enter a fresh breakout and inch towards its previous swing high.

The Bajaj twins were the top Sensex gainers after Bajaj Finance reported 8.6% quarterly growth in assets under management during the October-December period. The duo gained up to 5%.

Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, and SBI were some of the additional gainers. On the downside, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Tech, and Wipro were the top laggards.

The broader markets, however, continued to underperform for a second straight day. The BSE MidCap index ended 0.4 per cent higher while the BSE SmallCap index closed mildly in the red.

That said, volatility was high in the markets with the fear gauge – India VIX – rallying nearly 7 per cent.

A large part of today's rally was propelled by financial and banking counters, with 7 of the top 10 index contributors from this space.

Banks put up a robust run with the Nifty Bank index closing 2.3% higher. Other strong performers were metals, auto, realty and energy indices, which ended with a gain of over 1% each.

Meanwhile, high selling pressures remained unabated in defensive sectors, especially IT, which caused the Nifty IT index to end nearly 2% down. Pharma, the second-worst performer, closed 0.3 % lower.

Similarly, airlines also had a weak showing amid a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases across the country and several states enforcing strict lockdown-like restrictions. SpiceJet, IndiGo and Jet Airways slipped 1.6%, 3.2% and 0.3%, respectively, on the BSE.

Among individual stocks, Thermax gained over 6% after the company announced it bagged an order worth Rs 546 crore from a public sector power company.

That apart, the shares of Talbros Automotive Components rallied 20% to touch a new life-time high on the BSE. The stock price of the auto ancillary company has zoomed 81% in the past six weeks with ace investor Vijay Kedia buying nearly 2 per cent in the company through the open market.

On the flip side, Future Retail fell 6.3% as the Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected the Future Group's plea seeking to quash the arbitration proceedings initiated by Amazon in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.

Lastly, on the macroeconomic front, India's services sector activity, as measured by the Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, fell to a three-month low of 55.5 in December from 58.1 in November. This came as several states imposed night curfews ahead of the Christmas season amid Omicron fears.

Moreover, economists expect a mild downward risk to their earlier GDP forecasts as restrictions would affect services. The curbs may pull down economic growth in the range of 10-30 basis points in the fourth quarter, some of them said.