Domestic Markets closed in a red today; Sensex lost 323 points, Nifty 50 fell 85.30 pct

Domestic stock markets snapped a two-day rising streak on and closed in a red on Thursday, September 17, 2020. Markets witnessed selling pressure amidst profit-booking and weak global sentiments. Declines outnumbered advances 5:4, indicating interesting tussle between the Bulls and the Bears.

Domestic equity benchmark Sensex dropped 323 points, or 0.82 per cent, below 39,000-level to 38,979, while the NSE Nifty 50 fell 85.30 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 11,519.25. It appears that Nifty is unable to breach and hold above the 11600 mark, which is a crucial resistance.

Sellers outpaced buyers. On the BSE, 1154 shares rose and 1571 shares fell. On Nifty 50, 12 shares advanced and 38 declined.

Dr Reddy Laboratories (up 4.22 per cent), Zee Entertainment (up 2.25 per cent), HCL Technologies (up 2.25 per cent), Infosys (up 1.01 per cent) and Maruti (up 0.74 per cent) were the top gainers on Nifty 50 block, while Hindalco (down 4.33 per cent), Tata Motors (down 2.54 per cent), Shree Cement (down 2.39 per cent), Bajaj Finserv (down 2.20 per cent) and Adani Ports (down 2.08 per cent) were the top losers.

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said the government is working on setting up a single-window system for clearances and approvals of industry. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Mr Goyal said the cell is being planned as a one-stop digital platform to obtain all requisite central and state clearances and approvals to start business operations in the country.

He said the investment clearance cell will be a national portal that integrates the existing clearance systems of various ministries and departments of the government and states without disrupting the existing IT portals of the ministries.

Happiest Minds Technologies was trading at Rs 387.70, a premium of 133.55 per cent over the IPO price of Rs 166.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday vowed to keep interest rates near zero until inflation is on track to overshoot the US central bank's 2 per cent target. The new economic projections showed policymakers now see the economy shrinking 3.7 per cent this year, far less than the 6.5 per cent decline they forecast in June. They see unemployment, which registered 8.4 per cent in August, dropping to 7.6 per cent by the end of the year. The recovery "is here, and it's well along," Mr Powell said.

The Bank of Japan and Bank of England will announce their respective policy decisions on today. Growth in Singapore's non-oil domestic exports reportedly picked up last month, with shipments increasing 7.7 per cent year on year, data showed.

Global cues were negative as Dow Futures, Nasdaq Futures and FTSE were down by 0.97 per cent, 1.03 per cent and 0.79 per cent, respectively.