Banks, finance stocks lift stock market to record highs

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 Indian stock markets

Mumbai, (Asian independent) The Indian equity indices clocked all-time high levels on Tuesday backed by healthy buying in bankds and finance stocks.

Realty and auto stocks also surged during Tuesday’s trading session.

Sensex ended at a record closing level of 43,952.71, higher by 314.73 points or 0.72 per cent from its previous close of 43,637.98.

Earlier in the day it had touched an intra-day all-time high of 44,161.16 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at a record level of 12,874.20, higher by 93.95 points or 0.74 per cent from its previous close.

It touched an all-time high of 12,934.05 points earlier in the day.

Among the Sensex stocks, Tata Steel surged 6.24 per cent, after the company said that it is in talks with Sweden-based SSAB to sell its Netherland business.

On Friday, the company said that it has also started discussions with the supervisory board and board of management of Tata Steel Netherlands and the process will move to the next stage including due diligence and stakeholders’ consultations.

The steel major has also initiated the process to separate Tata Steel Netherlands and Tata Steel UK and will pursue separate strategic paths for the Netherlands and the UK business in the future.

Other top gainers on the Sensex were State Bank of India (up 4.59 per cent) and HDFC Bank (up 2.81 per cent).

Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research with Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd: “The broader market also ended on positive note with Nifty Midcap 100 hitting its 52-week high, up 1.1 per cent, while Nifty Smallcap 100 was up +0.3 per cent. India VIX rose 3.5 per cent to 19.8 levels.”

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities said that volumes on the NSE were significantly higher than recent average.

Asian stocks held gains and moved further into record territory on Tuesday, after U.S. benchmarks were pepped up by news of another promising coronavirus vaccine. European stock markets drifted lower Tuesday, amid caution over the economic outlook post the restrictions to combat the Covid-19 surge despite the latest positive Covid-19 vaccine news.

The domestic market continued its bull run on Tuesday tracking a positive global trend after pharma giant Moderna announced that its vaccine has shown more than 94 per cent effectiveness in preliminary data from the company’s ongoing study.

Moderna on Monday said that its experimental vaccine is 94.5 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19, boosting hopes of the economy emerging from a year of pandemic-induced downturn.