Market Wrap: Sensex And Nifty Extend Gains For Fifth Straight Day As Oil And Gas Shares Rally

Indian stock markets witnessed a relief rally in the third week of March as the benchmark indices gained for five sessions. On March 21, the Sensex closed at 76,905.51 levels up by 557.45 points or 0.73 per cent. The Nifty50 index closed at 23,350.4 levels up by 159.75 points or 0.69 per cent.

Top Gainers And Losers On March 21

Shares of SBI Life Insurance Company, NTPC and ONGC gained the most among Nifty stocks as they closed higher by up to 3.43 per cent. Shares of Bajaj Finance and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd also gained up to 2.67 per cent. Stocks of Trent, Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, Hindalco and Infosys fell the most, declining as much as 1.6 per cent.

All Sectoral Indices Close Higher

Most major sectoral indices closed higher on March 21. The Nifty Oil & Gas and the Nifty Pharma index closed higher by over 1.84 per cent and 1.34 per cent. The Nifty SmallCap 100 and the Nifty MidCap 100 also mirrored the performance of the benchmarks as they closed higher for the fifth straight day.

Global Markets

Asian indices such as the Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite closed lower by 2.24 per cent and 1.31 per cent, declining for the second straight day Key US market indices also posted declines with the Dow Jones Futures, S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing flat with negative biases on March 21.

Primary Market Action

The public issues of Rapid Fleet Management Services Limited IPO and Active Infrastructures Limited IPO opened for bidding on March 21. The bidding window for both the public issues is expected to close on March 25. Shares of both the companies are scheduled to be listed on the NSE SME platform on March 28.

Cues To Watch

The US Federal Reserve concluded its meeting on March 20. While no rate cuts were announced by the US Fed, Jerome Powell, the Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States, projected two rate cuts by the end of 2025.