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After a tepid opening, Indian stocks changed their course to scale new lifetime highs tracking a positive trend in global equities. After hitting a fresh lifetime high of 54,717 intraday, Sensex ended at record closing high of 54,492, up 123 points or 0.23%. Likewise, Nifty 50 settled at a new closing peak of 16,294, up 35 points or 0.22%.

“Despite witnessing consolidation in the opening session, large caps managed to continue trading at record high levels with the support from IT, Metal and FMCG stocks. Banking stocks continued to be under pressure ahead of the RBI’s policy announcement. Importantly, the broad market has started to underperform. Investors should be cautious in the short-term regarding the performance of mid & small caps after the thrilling rally during the year,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Top gainers & losers

Top gainers & losers on the Sensex.

Sectoral strand

Sectoral indices on NSE ended mixed. Nifty PSU, down over 2%, was the top laggard followed by the Nifty Realty index slipping 1.09%. While Nifty Bank, Nifty Auto and Nifty Pharma lost up to 0.54%.

On the upside, Nifty Metal index jumped 1.29%, whereas the Nifty IT & Nifty FMCG indices rose 0.76% and 0.60% respectively.

The fear gauge India VIX cooled by 2.57% to 12.87.

Broader market

Some amount of pain was visible in the broader market. BSE MidCap index ended flat with mild gains of 0.10% at 23,151 whereas the BSE SmallCap index settled lower at 26,731 down around 0.43%.

Overall market breadth was negative as 1,199 shares advanced compared to 2,028 declined while 124 remained unchanged.

Economy

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is scheduled to announce its bi-monthly policy review on 6 August 2021 at the end of the three-day meeting held from 4 August 2021 to 6 August 2021. As per reports, the RBI is likely to maintain the status quo on interest rates. The MPC, a six-member team headed by RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, had left the rates unchanged last time, citing concerns about inflation.

Global markets

European markets mostly advanced on Thursday, 5 August 2021 morning as investors digested more corporate earnings and await a key monetary policy decision from the Bank of England.

Asian stocks traded mixed following declines overnight on Wall Street. U.S. stocks closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 falling from a record high after data signalled a slowdown in jobs growth in July, and General Motors tracked its worst day since early March.