Markets closed over a per cent higher; Sensex soared 639 points & Nifty closed rose 1.23%

Domestic stocks markets ended with robust gains on Thursday, July 22, 2021. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index soared 638.70 points or 1.22 per cent to close at 52,837.21. The Nifty 50 index closed 191.95 points or 1.23 per cent higher at 15,824.05. Nifty Bank index gained 261.85 points or 0.76 per cent to close at 34,677.30.

The broader markets outperformed on BSE, as the S&P BSE MidCap rallied 1.49 per cent and S&P BSE SmallCap moved 1.52 per cent higher.

On the BSE, 2,168 shares rose and 1065 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index on NSE, 43 shares advanced and seven shares declined. The top five gainers on Nifty were JSW Steel (up 5.87 per cent), Tech Mahindra (up 5.41 per cent), Bajaj Finance (up 4.16 per cent), Bharti Airtel (up 4.16 per cent) and Tata Steel (up 3.62 per cent). The top five losers were Hindustan Unilever (down 2.34 per cent), Asian Paints (down 1.83 per cent), Bajaj Auto (down 1.17 per cent), Cipla (down 0.51 per cent) and Mahindra & Mahindra (down 0.26 per cent).

COVID-19 Update

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 19,20,08,050 with 41,27,109 deaths. India reported 4,09,394 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 4,18,987 deaths while 3,04,29,339 patients have been discharged, data showed.

Economy

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has downgraded India's economic growth forecast for the current financial year to 10 per cent on Tuesday, from 11 per cent projected earlier this year, mainly on account of the adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic. India's GDP growth recovered to 1.6 per cent in the last quarter of the fiscal year ended March 2021, narrowing contraction in the whole fiscal year from 8 per cent estimated in April to a revised 7.3 per cent, the multilateral funding agency said.

The European Central Bank will reveal on Thursday how its new inflation goal affects plans for future monetary policy. Officials must adapt their language on interest rates, asset purchases and other tools for an updated strategy agreed earlier this month, which now aims for inflation of 2 per cent and acknowledges that it may temporarily run higher. The discussion will pave the way for a critical debate in September on whether and how to withdraw emergency bond-buying. The backdrop is a resurgent euro-area economy that faces steep price increases but also considerable uncertainty. Rising Coronavirus cases are prompting some countries to re-tighten travel curbs, and the impact of other disasters, such as Germany's devastating floods, is still unknown.