Domestic Markets ended with small gains; Sensex ends 70 points higher & Nifty settles above 13,760

Domestic benchmarks equity indices closed flat on Friday, December 18, 2020, after recovering from the low point of the day. Tl.

The S&P BSE Sensex gained 70.35 points or 0.15 per cent to settle at 46,960.69. The Nifty 50 climbed 19.85 points or 0.14 per cent to settle at 13,760.55 However, Nifty Bank fell 132.40 points or 0.43 per cent to close down at 30,714.65.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1276 shares rose and 1706 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index, 27 shares advanced and 23 shares declined. The top five gainers on Nifty 50 block were Dr Reddy's (up 3.35 per cent), Bajaj Auto (up 2.50 per cent), Infosys (up 2.31 per cent), Wipro (up 1.71 per cent) and Cipla (up 1.53 per cent). The top five losers include IndusInd Bank (down 3.10 per cent), HDFC Bank (down 2.28 per cent), ONGC (down 1.97 per cent), Maruti (down 1.74 per cent) and IOC (down 1.36 per cent).

COVID-19 Update

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 7,49,58,938 with 16,62,228 deaths. India reported 3,13,831 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,44,789 deaths while 95,20,827 patients have been discharged. The country's COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 95.40 per cent, as more than 31 thousand COVID patients have recovered during the last 24 hours. Health Ministry said the total number of recoveries has gone up to over 95 lakh 20 thousand. The actual caseload currently comprises only 3.14 per cent of the total positive cases.

US Jobless Claims

US initial jobless claims rose to 885,000 in the week ended December 12, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level of 862,000, the Labour Department reported on Thursday. With the unexpected increase, jobless claims climbed to their highest level since hitting 893,000 in the week ended September 5.

Bank of England Decision

On Thursday, the Bank of England kept its main lending rate at 0.1 per cent, having earlier cut twice from 0.75 per cent since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, and retained its target stock of asset purchases at £895 billion ($1.2 trillion). Britain and the European Union struck a pessimistic tone in trade talks on Thursday, with a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying it was "very likely" that there would be no agreement unless the bloc changed its position "substantially".