Stock Market Update Today: Sensex rises 642 points; Nifty settles at 14,744

Stock Market Update Today: Equity Benchmarks on Friday, March 19, 2021, logged gains of more than one per cent even as the other Asian peers plunged more than one per cent. The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange rose 641.72 points, or 1.30 per cent, to trade at 49,858.24. The Nifty 50 at National Stock Exchange also added 186.15 points, 1.28 per cent, to trade at 14,744. The Nifty Bank gained 304.80 points, or 0.90 per cent and closed at 34.161.60.

The broader market at BSE also appreciated. The BSE Mid-Cap index appreciated 1.35 per cent and the BSE Small-Cap index closed 0.41 per cent up.

The market breadth was almost even. On the BSE, 1477 shares rose and 1,451 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index, 42 shares advanced and 8 shares declined. The top five gainers on Nifty 50 were Hindustan Unilever (up 4.51 per cent), NTPC (up 4.24 per cent), JSW Steel (up 3.96 per cent), UPL (up 3.94 per cent) and Tata Steel (up 3.79 per cent). The top five losers on the index were Tech Mahindra (down 1.25 per cent), Larsen & Turbo (down 1.01 per cent), Bajaj Auto (down 0.51 per cent), Coal India (down 0.47 per cent) and Titan (down 0.35 per cent).

COVID-19 Update

On March 18, Mumbai recorded 2,877 new cases and eight deaths. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said that it will make the Rapid Antigen Test facility to take samples for coronavirus testing compulsory for all malls in Mumbai. India reported 2,71,282 active cases of Covid-19 infection and 1,59,370 deaths while 1,10,83,679 patients have been discharged, data showed. Total Covid-19 confirmed cases worldwide were at 12,18,04,270 with 26,91,300 deaths.

Moody's Upgrades India's GDP Growth

India's gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to grow by 12 per cent in 2021, Moody's Analytics said on Thursday. In an earlier estimate last November, it had said India's GDP will grow at 9 per cent in the calendar year. Near-term prospects for Asia's third-largest economy have turned more favourable, but the second wave of COVID-19 infections is a key risk to recovery, Moody's Analytics said.

In an updated projection released yesterday, it said India's near-term prospects have turned more favourable following a stronger than expected December quarter when GDP grew by 0.4 per cent over the year following a 7.5 per cent contraction in the September quarter. Domestic and external demand has been on the mend since the easing of restrictions, which has led to improved manufacturing output in recent months.

Indian economy - battered by the coronavirus pandemic - is officially projected to contract 8 per cent in FY21, in its worst show in more than four decades. However, most professional forecasters have projected double-digit growth for India in FY22, considered mostly a statistical rebound than a V-shaped recovery.

Americans seeking Unemployment Benefits

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week to 770,000. Thursday's report from the US Labour Department showed that jobless claims climbed from 725,000 the week before.

Policy Tweaks by Bank of Japan

The Bank of Japan (BoJ) unveiled a set of carefully crafted policy tweaks aimed at giving itself more flexibility to keep up its long quest to revive inflation. The bank set out a wider-than-previously-thought movement range for bond yields and scrapped a buying target for stock funds at the end of a three-month policy review. Many of the tweaks give the BoJ greater scope to buy fewer assets and could be viewed as stepping back from the stimulus.