Market Wrap, Dec 5: NIFTY50 ends at 26,186, SENSEX rises 447 pts as banking stocks rally after RBI’s rate cut; Shriram Finance, SBI top gainers

The Indian equity market settled higher for the second session on Friday, December 5, supported by a rally in banking stocks as investors cheered the Reserve Bank of India’s rate cut decision.

Led by Governor Sanjay Malhotra, the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Friday unanimously voted to cut the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.25%, with immediate effect. With Friday’s reduction, the committee has now delivered a cumulative 125 basis points of rate cuts in the current fiscal year.

Led by rallies in State Bank of India (2.49%), Punjab National Bank (1.75%) and Bank of Baroda (1.32%), the Nifty Bank gained nearly 1%. All the banking stocks ended in green on the index.

Meanwhile, the rupee declined 10 paise to close at 89.99 (provisional) against the US dollar after the RBI cut the repo rate.

Despite Friday’s gains, the benchmark equity indices ended the week largely unchanged, with Nifty Bank also closing flat. Broader markets, however, saw weakness as the Nifty Midcap 100 slipped 0.7% and the Nifty Smallcap 100 declined 2%.

According to exchange data, on Thursday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹1,944.19 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹3,661.05 crore on a net basis.

Globally, Asian markets closed mixed on Friday following a listless session on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei fell 1.27%, Singapore's Straits Times declined 0.08%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.52%, and China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.69%. South Korea’s KOSPI also ended 1.74% higher.

On Wall Street, the US stocks largely ended on a flat note on Thursday, dragged down by losses in Amazon shares, which was the biggest drag on the S&P 500 index.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.07%, the S&P 500 ended 0.11% higher, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.22%.

Here are the key developments of Friday's session that you need to know

As many as 3,192 stocks traded on the NSE on Friday. Out of this, 1,335 advanced and 1,769 stocks declined, while 88 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of declines.

A total of 36 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 249 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 66 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 54 touched their lower circuit bands on Friday.

NSE-listed firms' market capitalisation stood at ₹468.58 lakh crore at the end of the session.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 10.32 levels, falling 4.64%.

The Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.49% to 60,594.60, supported by strong gains in M&M Finance (5.92%), Patanjali Foods (3.64%), and SBI Cards and Payment Services (3.56%).

However, the Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 0.57% to 17,507.75, weighed down by Kaynes Technology India (-12.31%), Data Patterns (-4.73%), and PG Electroplast (-4.37%).

Nifty PSU Bank took the lead among gainers’ lists among sectors, rising 1.51%, followed by Nifty IT (0.9%), Nifty Auto (0.74%), Nifty Metal (0.67%) and Nifty Private Bank (0.49%).

Nifty Media (-0.48%), Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.07%), Nifty Pharma (-0.05%) and Nifty FMCG (-0.01%) were the only losers.

On the NIFTY50 index, 38 stocks advanced while 12 declined on Friday.

Shriram Finance was the most contributing stock, soaring 3.04%, followed by State Bank of India (2.49%), Bajaj Finserv (2.13%), Adani Enterprises (2.03%), and Maruti Suzuki (1.91%).

On the flip side, Hindustan Unilever (-3.34%), Eternal (-1.35%), IndiGo (-1.27%), Trent (-0.85%) and Sun Pharma (-0.73%) were the biggest losing stocks on the 50-share index.