Amid fag-end buying markets closed flat; Sensex rose 55 points & Nifty closes at 17,369

Domestic equity barometers ended flat with some positive bias on Thursday, September 9, 2021. The S&P BSE Sensex advanced 54.81 points or 0.09 per cent to 58,305.07. The Nifty 50 index added 15.75 points or 0.09 per cent to 17,369.25. However, the Nifty Bank index dropped 85 points or 0.23 per cent to close at 36,683.20.

The broader markets at the BSE outperformed the Sensex with S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap closing 0.56 per cent and 0.52 per cent higher.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1844 shares rose and 1346 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index at the NSE, 30 shares rose and 20 shares fell. The top five gainers on Nifty were ONGC (up 2.69 per cent), Bharti Airtel (up 2.64 per cent), Nestle India (up 2.57 per cent), Hindalco (up 1.52 per cent) and Grasim (up 1.22 per cent). The top five losers were SBI Life (down 3.77 per cent), HDFC Life (down 1.03 per cent), Titan (down 1.02 per cent), UltraTech Cement (down 0.79 per cent) and Bajaj Auto (down 0.69 per cent).

The domestic stock market will remain closed tomorrow on account of Ganesh Chaturthi.

Initial Public Offering of LIC

The government has appointed ten merchant bankers including SBI Capital Market Limited, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, Citigroup Global Markets India and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities India to manage the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

In a tweet, Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Tuhin Kanta Pandey said that Government has finalised the book running lead managers and some other advisors for the IPO of LIC.

COVID-19 update

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 22,25,68,068 with 45,96,463 deaths. India reported 3,93,614 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 4,41,749 deaths while 3,23,04,618 patients have been discharged, data showed.

Economy

The Finance Ministry today released the 6th monthly instalment of the Post-Devolution Revenue Deficit grant to the states worth Rs 9,871 crore. A total of Rs 59,226 crore has been released to the states as Post-Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant in the current financial year.

The Post-Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant is provided to the states under Article 275 of the Constitution. The grants are being released as per the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission in monthly instalments.

The Federal Reserve said in its latest "Beige Book" that US businesses are experiencing rising inflation that is being intensified by a shortage of goods and likely will be passed onto consumers in many areas. The Fed also reported that growth overall had "downshifted slightly to a moderate pace" amid rising public health concerns during the July through August period that the report covers. The deceleration in economic activity was largely attributable to a pullback in dining out, travel, and tourism in most districts, reflecting safety concerns due to the rise of the Delta variant, and, in a few cases, international travel restrictions, the report said.