Equity Benchmarks end with minor gains; Sensex rises 0.17% & Nifty closes at 14,873

Domestic equity benchmarks ended with minor gains on Thursday, April 8, 2021. After surpassing the psychological levels of 50,000 and hitting the day's high of 50,118.08 the Sensex fell and closed with a marginal gain of 84.45 points or 0.17 per cent at 49,746.21. Similarly, Nifty 50, which touched the day's high of 14,984.15 fell and closed 54.75 points or 0.37 per cent higher than the previous session at 14,873.80.

The Nifty Bank index, which opened higher at 33,154.20-mark, closed in red with a loss of 208.35 points or 0.63 per cent at 32,782.85.

Buyers outnumbered sellers. On the BSE, 1873 shares rose and 1046 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index, 31 shares advanced and 18 shares declined while one share remained unchanged. The top five gainers on the Nifty index were JSW steel (up 9.59 per cent), Tata Steel (up 5.39 per cent), Shree Cement (up 4.79 per cent), UltraTech Cement (up 4.14 per cent) and Hindalco (up 4.07 per cent). The top losers were Sun Pharma (down 1.14 per cent), IndusInd Bank (down 1.12 per cent), SBI Life (down 1.01 per cent), ONGC (down 1 per cent) and Bajaj Finance (down 0.98 per cent).

COVID-19 Update

Total Covid-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 13,31,31,285 with 28,87,888 deaths. India reported 9,10,319 active cases of Covid-19 infection and 1,66,862 deaths while 1,18,51,393 patients have been discharged, data showed. India detected 1,26,789 new cases of the novel Coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the highest so far. Of the total, Maharashtra recorded a new high of 59,907 cases, while Chhattisgarh's count went past the 10,000-mark for the first time. Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, too, reported more than 6,000 cases. The country also recorded 685 related deaths.

US Fed Minutes of Meet of March

The US Fed released minutes from its March 16-17 meeting during which it kept its accommodative policy in place. The meeting summary indicated that while officials saw the economy was gaining considerably, they see much more progress needed before ultra-easy policy changes.

President Joe Biden recently unveiled details of his $2 trillion infrastructure plan that includes a corporate tax rate hike to 28 per cent. He said on Wednesday that he is willing to negotiate on the proposed tax increase.