Indian share markets witnessed most of the buying interest during closing hours today and ended on a strong note.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 477 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty stood higher by 138 points.
UltraTech Cement and Grasim were among the top gainers today.
SGX Nifty was trading at 11,415, up by 127 points, at the time of writing.
The BSE Mid Cap index ended up by 1.1%. The BSE Small Cap index ended up by 1.3%.
Sectoral indices ended on a positive note with stocks in the banking sector and realty sector witnessing buying interest.
Asian stock markets ended on a mixed note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was up 0.1% and the Shanghai Composite stood higher by 0.4%. The Nikkei ended down by 0.2%.
The rupee is trading at 74.66 against the US$.
Gold prices are trading up by 0.9% at Rs 53,755 per 10 grams.
Speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that after over 2 years of lag, the smallcap index is beating Sensex in the post-COVID rebound.
We have seen a sharp up move in the index post the market crash. The smallcap index has risen way higher since its March lows.
Now, what lies ahead? Will the rally continue? Or will there be a correction?
Moving on to stock-specific news, Bandhan Bank was among the top buzzing stocks today.
Bandhan Bank said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted the regulatory restriction imposed on its managing director and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh's remuneration as its holding company brought shareholding in the bank to 40% to comply with licensing conditions earlier this month.
The private sector bank's holding company, Bandhan Financial Holdings (BFHL), on August 3 diluted 20.9% equity shares in the lender in order to bring its shareholding to 40% through a secondary market sale to meet RBI's licensing conditions.
BFHL raised around Rs 106 billion by selling its 33,73,67,190 equity shares in the lender to domestic and overseas investors, including BlackRock, Singapore's GIC, Temasek, and SBI Mutual Fund.
The RBI in September 2018 had barred Bandhan Bank from opening new branches and also frozen the remuneration of Ghosh at the existing level for the bank not being able to bring down the promoter holding to 40% in three years' time.
According to RBI's new banking licensing norms, any bank offering universal services will have to bring down the promoter holding to 40% in three years from the date of commencement of business.
Moving on to news from the commodity space, gold prices rose today as the tension between the United States and China escalated and amid projections that India's economy could contract 16.5% in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
The latest contract for gold futures on MCX was trading at Rs 53,450 per 10 grams in morning trades today.
In global markets, gold rate edged up on the back of a weaker dollar, although gains were capped by a rally in US equities and signs of a recovery in global economic activity.
Gold traders are now awaiting the minutes from Federal Reserve's most recent policy meeting for more clues into the policy stance of the US central bank. The minutes will be released later this week.
The economic calendar is pretty thin this week, with the major triggers expected to come from the Federal Reserve minutes, US fiscal package, and US-China meeting.
Even with the recent volatility in prices, gold and silver remain among the best-performing commodities this year to combat the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this month, gold had hit a record high of Rs 56,191 in Indian markets amid a global rally.
So, is it time to book profits in gold and silver?
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