Vaccine hopes fuel record index rallies

THE SENSEX CLOSED AT 44,632.65, WHILE THE NIFTY CLOSED AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH OF 13,133.90

MUMBAI: Domestic equity benchmarks ended modestly higher on Thursday, with the Nifty settling at a fresh record, as investors largely remained in a wait-and-watch mode ahead of RBI’s policy decision amid mixed global cues. After scaling an all-time intra-day peak of 44,953.01, the 30-share BSE Sensex pared some gains to end 14.61 points or 0.03% higher at 44,632.65.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty touched a fresh intra-day high of 13,216.60, before settling 20.15 points or 0.15% up at 13,133.90—its lifetime closing high.

Maruti was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying 7.45%, followed by ONGC, Asian Paints, NTPC, SBI, Bajaj Finserv and Tata Steel. HDFC Bank was the top laggard, skidding 2.13%, after the RBI temporarily barred it from launching digital banking initiatives and issuing new credit cards after taking a serious view of service outages at the country’s largest private sector lender over the last two years. TCS, Bajaj Auto, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, M&M and HDFC were among the losers, shedding up to 1.48%.

Global markets were mixed as investors digested a raft of economic data and progress on the Covid-19 vaccine front. The RBI will announce its monetary policy decision on Friday amid expectations that the central bank will maintain status quo on lending rates in view of high retail inflation.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended with gains, while Shanghai closed lower. Stock exchanges in Europe were trading on a negative note in early deals. Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.68% to $47.92 per barrel.