Markets settle higher; Sensex ends over 60,200, Nifty 50 reclaims above 17,900; Bank, financials, metal outperform; Bajaj twins, Kotak top bulls; IT stocks nosedive

5 Jan 2022 , 03:40 PM

Indian markets settled on a bullish tone during Wednesday with benchmarks Sensex and Nifty 50 touching seven-week highs. Although IT stocks witnessed a steep selloff, the impact was overpowered by outperformance seen in banking, financials, auto, metals and oil & gas stocks.

The rapid surge Omicron virus variant and its uncertainties continued to be observed. While, corporate earnings for the third quarter of FY22 has also influenced markets trend.

Sensex closed at 60,223.15 higher by 367.22 points or 0.61%. The index has touched an intraday high of 60,332.72.

Nifty 50 ended at 17,925.25 up by 120.00 points or 0.67%. The benchmark has clocked the day’s high of 17,944.70.

On BSE, the IT index nosedived nearly 720 points. While the Bankex climbed over a whopping 1,020 points in the closing bell. The Metal and Finance Index soared nearly 2%, whereas the Oil & Gas index jumped over 1%.

Bank Nifty outperformed the exchange Nifty 50, by settling more than 2%. 

On the Sensex benchmark, Bajaj Finserv was at the forefront of Wednesday’s bulls with around 5% upside followed by subsidiary Bajaj Finance surging 4.4%. Kotak Bank gained 3.5%, while Axis Bank soared 2.5%. Stocks like Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Asian Paint, Maruti Suzuki, SBI and ICICI Bank advanced between 1.8-2.5%.

Major tech giants dominated the bearish bucket on Sensex. Tech Mahindra was the most sold stock with 2.7% downside followed by Infosys slipping 2.5%. HCL Tech shed 1.7%, while Power Grid and Wipro dipped over 1% each.

Asian markets saw mixed sentiments with KOSPI, Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng being the worst hit as a strong upside in the U.S. Treasury yields pushed global technology firms off the cliff.