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Domestic Markets fell amid selling pressure; Sensex fell 0.73% & Nifty 50 closed 90 points down
Markets largely in consolidation mode
Domestic indices declined for a third consecutive trading session on selling pressure in index pivotal on Thursday, February 18, 2021.
Domestic indices declined for a third consecutive trading session on selling pressure in index pivotal on Thursday, February 18, 2021. The S&P BSE Sensex dropped 379.14 points or 0.73 per cent at 51,324.69. The Nifty 50 index fell 89.95 points or 0.59 per cent at 15,118.95. The Nifty Bank fell 323.95 points or 0.88 per cent to settle at 36,587.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1,639 shares rose and 1,328 shares fell. On the NSE, 23 shares advanced on the Nifty 50 index, while 27 shares declined. The five top gainers on Nifty 50 were ONGC (up 7.58 per cent), GAIL (up 6.99 per cent), BPCL (up 4.659 per cent), IOC (up 4.21 per cent) and NTPC (up 4.03 per cent). The top five losers were Bajaj Finance (down 2.51 per cent), Tata Motors (down 2.21 per cent), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.21 per cent), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 2.18 per cent) and Shree Cement (down 2.08 per cent).
COVID-19 Update
Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 109,885,555 with 2,429,669 deaths. India reported 137,342 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 156,014 deaths while 106,56,845 patients have been discharged, data showed.
US Economy
Federal Reserve officials in January expected it would be "some time" before conditions to scale back their massive bond purchases were met, leaving open the question of whether any tapering could start before 2022. "With the economy still far from those goals, participants judged that it was likely to take some time for substantial further progress to be achieved," according to minutes of their January 26-27 gathering, published on Wednesday.
The account reinforced the dovish message from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who said last week that the US is "very far from a strong labour market whose benefits are broadly shared," noting employment was still nearly 10 million jobs below levels that prevailed before the Coronavirus pandemic began. It is a theme he is likely to return to next week in semi-annual testimony before Congress. A brightening outlook for the US economy since the start of the year has added to investor speculation over when the Fed will begin scaling back the bond-buying programme, which is currently running at a pace of $120 billion of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities purchases per month.
