Domestic benchmarks ended with robust gains; Sensex shoots up 976 points & Nifty ends at 15,175

Snapping the two days losses, the domestic equity barometers ended with robust gains of more than 1.80 per cent on Friday, May 21, 2021. The gains were boosted by banks and financial stocks, which was fueled by the strong quarterly results of India's largest public sector bank, State Bank of India. The lender's net profit zoomed over 80 per cent to Rs 6,451 crore in Q4FY21 as it set aside lower provisions and expected asset quality to improve going forward.

The S&P BSE Sensex surged 975.62 points or 1.97 per cent to 50,540.48. The Nifty 50 index jumped 269.25 points or 1.81 per cent to settle above the crucial level of 15,150-level at 15,175.30. Both the indices hit their respective highs of 50,591 and 15,190.

The Nifty Bank index rose 1,272.35 points or 3.82 per cent to close to 34,606.90. The Nifty Financial Services index rose 3.21 per cent to 16,339.85

In the broader markets, the S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices underperformed the benchmarks today and ended 0.82 per cent and 0.65 per cent higher, respectively.

Buyers outpaced sellers. On the BSE, 1959 shares rose and 1161 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index on NSE, 45 shares advanced and 5 shares declined. The top five gainers on Nifty were State Bank of India (up 5.06 per cent), HDFC Bank (up 4.78 per cent), IndusInd Bank (up 3.99 per cent), ICICI Bank (up 3.91 per cent) and Axis Bank (up 3.72 per cent). The five losers were Grasim (down 0.38 per cent), Power Grid (down 0.31 per cent), IOC (down 0.29 per cent), Eicher Motors (down 0.26 per cent) and Dr Reddy's (down 0.26 per cent).

COVID-19 Update

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 165,530,873 with 3,430,323 global deaths. India reported 30,27,925 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 2,91,331 deaths, data showed.

Nomura on Indian Economy

A foreign brokerage firm Nomura on Thursday reportedly said it expects the overall hit to sequential growth for India in April-June 2021 to be much less severe than last year when there was a complete nationwide lockdown. The brokerage has estimated the economy would contract 3.8 per cent in the June quarter as compared with the March quarter. It said, the lockdowns were more nuanced this time and consumers and businesses have adapted, it said, adding that international experience also suggests the same. The brokerage highlighted that the improving global growth will act as a tailwind and it expects the current lockdowns to last six more weeks.

Drop-in claims for unemployment benefits in the US

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped further below 500,000 last week. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 34,000 to a seasonally adjusted 444,000 for the week ended May 15, the US Labour Department said. That was the lowest since mid-March 2020 and held claims below 500,000 for two straight weeks.

Business Growth in the Euro Zone

In the eurozone, business growth hit its fastest pace for more than three years. The initial flash composite PMI came in at 56.9 compared to April's 53.8.