Equity markets closed flat today; Sensex closes above 60,000 & Nifty at 17,855

Paring its solid gains of the morning trade, the domestic stock markets ended on a flat note on Monday, September 27, 2021. The trade remained volatile for most of the part of day with Sensex holding above 60,000 level. The S&P BSE Sensex rose 29.41 points or 0.05 per cent to 60,077.88. Earlier in the intraday trade, the BSE Sensex managed to log a fresh record high of 60,412.32.

The Nifty 50 index rose 1.90 points or 0.01 per cent to 17,855.10. The Nifty Bank closed with a gain of 340.95 points or 0.90 per cent at 38,171.25.

The broader markets underperformed the benchmark Sensex with S&P BSE Midcap closed flat and S&P BSE SmallCap declined 0.13 per cent. The market volatility, meanwhile, remained high as India VIX surged 6.67 per cent to 18.05.

The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,635 shares rose and 1,718 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index at the NSE, 25 shares advanced and 25 shares declined. The top five gainers on Nifty were Maruti (up 6.44 per cent), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 4.30 per cent), Tata Motors (up 4.10 per cent), ONGC (up 2.83 per cent) and Hero MotoCorp (up 2.75 per cent). The top five losers were HCL Technologies (down 4.36 per cent), Tech Mahindra (down 3.28 per cent), Wipro (down 3.23 per cent), Divi's Laboratories (down 3.22 per cent) and Bajaj Finserv (down 2.57 per cent).

COVID-19 update

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 23,18,20,895 with 47,48,055 deaths. India reported 2,99,620 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 4,47,194 deaths, data showed.

Economy

The direct tax collections for the financial year 2021-22, as of September 22, 2021, showed that net collections are at Rs 5,70,568 crore, a year-on-year increase of 74.4%. In the last financial year, the net collection was Rs 3,27,174 crore, a Finance Ministry release stated on September 24, 2021.

The net direct tax collection of Rs 5,70,568 crore, includes corporation tax of Rs 3,02,975 crore (net of refund) and personal income tax including security transaction tax (STT) of Rs 2,67,593 crore (net of refund).

Meanwhile, rating agency ICRA on Monday revised up its 2021-22 real GDP growth estimate for India to 9% from the earlier 8.5%. A ramp-up in COVID-19 vaccination, healthy advance estimates of Kharif (summer) crop and faster government spending were the factors that led to the revision. ICRA said it expects the second half of the fiscal year to have brighter prospects.