Markets ended the day with marginal losses; Sensex fell 17 points & Nifty ends at 17,362

Benchmarks indices ended almost flat after a volatile session on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. Both the headline indices, Sensex and Nifty 50, snapped their winning streak of three days but managed to hit new highs in intraday trade today. Sensex and Nifty 50 stuck the new high of 58,553.07 and 17,436.50, respectively.

The S&P BSE Sensex shed 17.43 points or 0.03 per cent to close at 58,279.48. The Nifty 50 index lost 15.70 points or 0.09 per cent to 17,362.10. The Nifty Bank index fell 123.55 points or 0.34 per cent to end at 36,468.80.

The broader markets underperformed the benchmark Sensex, the BSE MidCap index lost 0.23 per cent and BSE SmallCap fell 0.42 per cent.

Sellers outpaced buyers. On the BSE, 1332 shares rose and 1844 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index at the NSE, 19 shares rose and 31 shares fell. The top five gainers on Nifty were Bharti Airtel (up 2.62 per cent), HDFC (up 2.46 per cent), Grasim (up 1.57 per cent), ITC (up 1.22 per cent) and IndusInd Bank (up 1 per cent). The top five losers are Sun Pharma (down 2.16 per cent), BPCL (down 1.84 per cent), Hindalco (down 1.76 per cent), Axis Bank (down 1.65 per cent) and Wipro (down 1.63 per cent).

COVID-19 Update

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 22,11,14,526 with 45,75,054 deaths. India reported 3,92,864 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 4,41,042 deaths while 3,22,24,937 patients have been discharged, data showed.

Economy

The Reserve Bank of India yesterday released data on the performance of the private industries during the first quarter of the current financial year. Data says sales of manufacturing companies have registered massive growth of 75 per cent which was -41.1% in the same quarter of last financial year. RBI said, all the major sectors recorded high growth during the quarter. Sales of IT companies increased by 17.5 per cent as compared to 6.4 per cent last year.

China's import and export growth accelerated in August despite disruptions due to the spread of the Coronavirus' delta variant. Exports rose 25.6 per cent over a year earlier to $294.3 billion, up from July's 18.9 per cent growth, customs data showed Tuesday. Imports rose 33.1 per cent to $236 billion, up from the previous month's 28.7 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of Australia today announced its decision to hold steady on the cash rate target.

US markets were closed on Monday for a holiday. The August US jobs report came in short of expectations, highlighting continued concern about the spread of COVID-19 and its delta variant. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 2,35,000 in August, the Labour Department reported. The disappointing August jobs report will likely influence the Fed's timeline for tapering its asset-purchase programme.