oppn parties Stock markets: Huge Rally, Fresh Peaks

News Snippets

  • The Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to investigate alleged irregularities in bulk Form 7 applications during Uttar Pradesh's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, take corrective steps and submit a compliance report. The Commission's counsel told the court that its officers had found the bulk applications false and had not acted on them
  • The INDIA bloc postponed its symbolic public impeachment proceedings against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to October 31 because of rain and reiterated plans for its November 1 march to Ramlila Maidan
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused opposition leaders of spreading rumours and attempting to create chaos amid the West Asia crisis, while Home Minister Amit Shah challenged them to seek a special parliamentary session to discuss their allegations against the Election Commission. Shah said the BJP was ready for a debate on the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls
  • Amit Shah announced that the BJP would implement a Uniform Civil Code in Uttar Pradesh if it returned to power in next year's Assembly election. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav questioned why the BJP had waited through two terms in government before making the promise
  • The political dispute over the proposed sale of a 60.72% stake in IDBI Bank to Fairfax intensified as Rahul Gandhi questioned the government's decision and raised concerns about employee protections and reservation policies. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman defended the transaction, saying the bank had been revived through recapitalisation and that due process had been followed
  • Congress has asked Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer, State Election Commission and Kolkata Municipal Corporation to provide an online voter-roll search facility and email-based filing of claims and objections for the civic polls. The CPM has separately sought the relocation of three municipal returning officers' offices to north Kolkata to make access easier for voters
  • The Madras High Court directed Tamil Nadu's Cyber Crime Division to monitor online platforms for content amounting to criminal intimidation of sitting judges and ordered police to act against threats and personal abuse. It declined to impose a blanket ban on peaceful discussion or criticism of judicial decisions, distinguishing criticism of judgments from intimidation of judges
  • Six people, including five passengers and the pilot, were killed when a helicopter travelling from Badrinath to Dehradun crashed in Uttarakhand's Joshimath valley after losing communication and tracking contact. Operator Trans Bharat Aviation grounded its entire fleet as a precaution while authorities conducted search and rescue operations
  • The Reserve Bank of India intensified cybersecurity scrutiny of banks after a rise in attacks, asking lenders to demonstrate compliance with existing rules, examine vulnerabilities in application programming interfaces and explain preparations for AI-related risks. The review follows a leak of data belonging to 3,900 SBI customers and more than 700 unauthorised transfers worth about $2 million from two non-bank lenders
  • India's foreign-exchange reserves fell by $1.27 billion to $719.75 billion in the week ended October 23, marking a seventh consecutive weekly decline and the lowest level in more than two months. RBI data also showed bank credit grew 17.94% year-on-year to ₹232.54 lakh crore by October 15, ahead of 16.6% growth in deposits
  • The Sensex rose 308.49 points, or 0.42%, to close at 74,459.53 on Friday, while the Nifty 50 gained 116.35 points, or 0.51%, to settle at 23,053.10, crossing the 23,000 mark. IT stocks led the rally, with the Nifty IT index gaining over 2%, while mid-cap and small-cap shares came under pressure, with their respective indices falling 0.93% and 1.85%. For October, the Sensex gained 2.7% and the Nifty 1.9%, ending a two-month losing streak
  • Manisha Bhanwala became the first Indian woman to win a senior wrestling world title, defeating American Abigail Nette 8-6 in the 59kg freestyle final after trailing 0-6. India finished the women's freestyle competition with four medals, its best-ever haul at the championships
  • India defeated Japan 4-1 in the men's Asian Champions Trophy in Jalandhar to register a third consecutive victory. Abhishek Nain scored twice, while captain Harmanpreet Singh and Vishnukant Singh added one goal each
  • New Zealand beat India by 87 runs in the fourth T20 International at Auckland, with Glenn Phillips scoring 107 off 49 balls as the hosts posted 259-7. India were restricted to 172-9 but retain a 3-1 lead in the five-match series
  • Supreme Court wonders how scammers know who keeps huge funds in their accounts, says bank staff is involved in digital arrest scams and asks RBI to mandate indemnification by banks of money lost by customers in digital arrest scams
Congress conducts 'public impeachment' of CEC Gyanesh Kumar in mock Parliament at party chief Mallikarjun Kharge's house /////// Rahul Gandhi says Kumar is not going to survive as CEC
oppn parties
Stock markets: Huge Rally, Fresh Peaks

By Ashwini Agarwal
First publised on 2021-09-23 12:04:44

Stock markets rallied impressively on Thursday on global cues and reports of a renewed interest in property buying in India, benefiting realty companies and banks that are exposed to property mortgage. The Sensex touched a record intraday high of 59957 points before profit taking at higher levels pruned the gains. It closed 958 points or 1.63 percent higher to settle at a record closing level of 58885. Nifty rose by 276 points or 1.57 percent to close at a fresh peak of 17823. The rally was led by metals, banks, fintech and realty. Baja Finserv, SBI, RIL, Axis bank, L&T and HDFC were the major gainers, rising by up to 4.51 percent.

The US markets had rallied yesterday after the US Fed announced its decision to continue the $120billion monthly asset purchase programme to support the economy. Fed said that any decision on pull back will be taken in the November meeting. The Asian markets that were spooked after Chinese realtor Evergrande's debt repayment problems became known, have discounted the factor. The Hong Kong markets reopened today with a positive bias as Evergrande announced that it would pay interest to domestic bond holders. Other Asian markets also rallied and so did the European markets.

The Indian markets too reacted positively to global cues. The rally was also spurred by realty shares as the markets reacted positively to signs of increase in property sales. This had a cascading effect and shares connected to realty, like steel, cement and banks doing property mortgage also jumped. Some realty shares are now trading at 11-year high levels. Godrej Realty shares rose by as much as 12.61 percent.

The markets were showing signs of a tussle between the bulls and the bears for the last few sessions. Each session saw a rollercoaster ride with deep lows and highs. But today's smart and broad-based rally shows that the psychological peak of 60000 (there was resistance to it today with the intraday rally stopping short at 59957) is likely to be achieved in the next few sessions, maybe as early as Monday. But small investors need to be careful as all shares are not rising. Even during the rally on Thursday, Sensex stocks like Dr Reddy's, ITC, Bharti Airtel and Nestle India fell by up to 1.09 percent.