Market highlights: Sensex, Nifty close on a high; mid caps, small caps stage comeback

The rupee closed 10 paise lower at 83.27 per dollar from the previous close of 83.17.

Benchmark indices ended on a high after starting the day deep in the red.

At close, the Sensex was up 358.79 points or 0.51% at 70,865.10, and the Nifty was up 104.80 points or 0.50% at 21,255.

The top gainers on the Nifty included Britannia Industries, Reliance Industries, BPCL, Power Grid Corporation, HDFC Bank and NTPC, while losers included the Cipla, the Bajaj twins, HCL Technologies and Axis Bank.

IT, bank, FMCG rose about 0.5%, while metal, pharma, realty, power and oil & gas, capital goods rose 1-2%. After crashing up to 3% on Wednesday, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices jumped 1.5% each.

Retail inflation for farm workers rose to 7.37% and that for rural labourers to 7.13% in November, mainly due to higher prices of certain food items, PTI reports. Retail inflation in October was 7.08% and 6.92% for farm workers and rural labourers, respectively, according to an official statement.

The dollar was steady while sterling nursed losses on Thursday, ahead of the last major data release of the year in Friday's US inflation figures. Sterling suffered its sharpest drop on the dollar in two months on Wednesday after British inflation dived below forecasts to an annual 3.9% in October, a two-year low.

At 3 pm the Sensex was up 342.02 points or 0.49% at 70,848.33, and the Nifty was up 94.80 points or 0.45% at 21,245.

State Bank of India said today it will sign a 200 million euro (about ₹1,800 crore) line of credit with the European Investment Bank to support climate action projects in the country.

Shares of Poonawalla Fincorp are down 1% after a huge block deal in which around 1.36 million shares changed, Bloomberg reports. Details of the buyers and sellers are not yet known.

Europe's main stock markets opened lower on Thursday, with London hitting reverse a day after jumping on news of a sharp slowdown in UK inflation. London's benchmark FTSE 100 index fell 0.3% to 7,694.34.

Hong Kong shares closed slightly higher as traders took a breather from a rally across world markets fuelled by expected US interest rate cuts next year. The Hang Seng Index inched up 7.32 points to 16,621.13. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.57% or 16.61 points to 2,918.71, and the Shenzhen Composite Index on China's second exchange rose 0.90% or 16.16 points to 1,801.50.

At 2 pm the Sensex was up 191.14 points or 0.27% at 70,697.45, and the Nifty was up 62.60 points or 0.30% at 21,212.80.

The initial public offering of Happy Forgings has been booked 20.22 times so far on the final day of bidding. The quoae for retail investors and NIIs have been subscribed 11.67 times and 42.18 times, respectively, while the QIB portion has been subscribed 18.64 times.

Kenneth Andrade, Founder & CIO of Old Bridge Capital Management, anticipates a potential market downturn in the coming year.

According to Andrade, macro events could be the catalyst for such a decline, with factors such as a global crisis, a country's balance sheet implosion, or a drying up of liquidity in the market being potential triggers. Read more.

A committee to suggest rules for direct equity listing at India's international financial centre (IFSC) in GIFT city has recommended depositories in the IFSC and the rest of the county be connected to enable this, Reuters reported. A connection between the depositories would enable the issue of new equity shares directly and allow transfer of existing equity shares, its report released late on Wednesday said.

Gold prices rose on Thursday, helped by a softer dollar and lower Treasury yields, as traders looked to U.S. economic data for more clues on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy outlook. Spot gold was up 0.3% at $2,035.19 per ounce, as of 7.09 am GMT. US gold futures was steady at $2,047.10.

Covid fear is back to haunt the markets. Equity benchmarks Nifty 50 and Sensex cracked over a per cent in the previous session on Wednesday, December 20. The early trade on Thursday, December 21, continued this trend as both indices initially dropped by almost a per cent. However, they swiftly rebounded, displaying resilience and steadiness, and by 1 pm were trading in the green. Experts attribute this volatility to profit booking amid rising Covid cases. Read more.

BHEL shares are up 4.2% on the day and 123.64% so far this year.

At 1 pm the Sensex was up 299.23 points or 0.42% at 70,805.54, and the Nifty was up 90.60 points or 0.43% at 21,240.80.

Sebi has approved the appointment of Pramod Agrawal as chairman of the governing board of the stock exchange with effect from January 17, 2024. He will succeed S S Mundra.

Rajesh E T, the chief of internal vigilance, has been transferred to the inspection and audit Department to manage and develop the department's software applications starting January 3. Ajin Raj will replace him as chief of internal vigilance.

Suzlon has bagged a 193.2 MW wind power project from The KP Group in Gujarat, to which it will supply 92 wind turbines with a rated capacity of 2.1 MW each.

Azad Engineering IPO has been oversubscribed 5.8 times so far on day. It received bids for 5.8 crore shares against the 1 crore on offer.

At 12 pm the Sensex was up 34.37 points or 0.05% at 70,540.68, and the Nifty was up 16.10 points or 0.08% at 21,166.30.

Social media platform X and X Pro suffered outages globally early Thursday, Reuters reports, citing Downdetector.com.

Users on X, formerly known as Twitter, were unable to view posts on the social media site with a message that said "Welcome to X!"

Users encountered loading issues on X Pro, formerly TweetDeck, with a message that said "Waiting for posts."

Over 47,000 U.S. users faced access issues with X and X Pro, according to Downdetector data.

Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources including users.

Oil India shares are in the green for the third straight day, up 5.3%.

Credo Brands's IPO has been oversubscribed 10 times so far on its final day. The company received bids for 13crore shares against 1.3 crore on offer.

Cochin Shipyard has signed a contract worth ₹488.25 crore with the Ministry of Defence for short refit of an Indian Naval ship.

Gold saw a minor uptick in early trade on Thursday amid slippages in the dollar index (DXY). Investors are awaiting more economic data from the US to gauge which way the Fed could move. On Friday, the world’s largest economy will release the November core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index report, the Fed's preferred measure of underlying inflation.

At 11 am the Sensex was up 16.61 points or 0.02% at 70,522.92, and the Nifty was up 6.30 points or 0.03% at 21,156.50.

The Ministry of Defence has signed a ₹1,614.89-crore deal with the company for six next-generation offshore patrol vessels for the Indian Coast Guard.

Satin Creditcare Network shares are up 2% after it raised funds through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) route. The company board approved the allotment of 1,08,36,584 shares at ₹230.70 each to seven institutional investors, it said in a exchange filing.

Indian government bond yields eased marginally, tracking a fall in US yields, although caution ahead of a planned debt supply limited the impact. The 10-year benchmark bond yield was at 7.1549% as of 10 am, after closing at 7.1679% in the previous session.

Ashok Leyland has secured an order for 552 buses from the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation.

The bank has received the RBI’s approval to reappoint Sandeep Batra as executive director from 23 December 2023 to 22 December 2025.

At 10 am the Sensex was down 242.63 points or 0.34% at 70,263.68, and the Nifty was down 66.80 points or 0.32% at 21,083.40.

The company offers end-to-end solutions, covering design, engineering, manufacturing, and installation of cryogenic equipment and systems. 

The rupee depreciated 4 paise to 83.22 against the US dollar in early trade, tracking negative cues from domestic equity markets and sustained withdrawal of foreign funds.

"At high valuations the market is vulnerable to sharp corrections and this happened yesterday. Two trends are important: one, the correction in mid and small caps is almost double the correction in large caps; two, DIIs turned big buyers towards the end of the trading day. 

“The vulnerability of the mid and small caps to correction remains since the valuations are excessive. Large caps will witness buying on declines. Investors can wait for the market to stabilise and buy high-quality large cap stocks on declines.”

The company has entered into a share subscription and shareholders agreement to acquire a 26% stake in renewable energy firm Clean Max Terra for ₹20.25 crore.

The rupee opened flat at 83.18 per dollar against previous close of 83.17.

The deadline to complete its acquisition of a 73.05% stake in Irillic Pvt Ltd has been extended from December to the end of February 2024 by mutual agreement.

At 9.15 am the Sensex was down 400.65 points or 0.57% at 70,105.66, and the Nifty was down 128.50 points or 0.61% at 21,021.70.

Cochin Shipyard has signed a contract worth ₹488.25 crore with the Ministry of Defence for short refit of an Indian Naval ship.

The Ministry of Defence has signed a ₹1,614.89-crore deal with the company for six next-generation offshore patrol vessels for the Indian Coast Guard.

The company plans to launch Enhertu in India in January 2024. The drug is used in the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer who have received a prior anti-HER2-based regimen.

GIFT Nifty trading at a discount of nearly 30 points from Nifty Futures Wednesday close, indicating a start in the red for the Indian market.

Oil declined after three days of gains as data showing record-high US production outweighed threats by Houthi rebels in Yemen to continue targeting ships in one of the world’s most important waterways.

West Texas Intermediate fell as much as 1% in early Asian trading to below $74 a barrel, after shifting lower at the end of Wednesday’s session as government data showed US crude output hit a new high of 13.3 million barrels a day last week. Meanwhile, the Iran-backed militant group warned Washington it would retaliate if the US chooses military attacks on its bases.