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Indian equity benchmarks resumed record closing high spree after a day’s blip on the weekly F&O expiry day, tracking gains in index majors TCS, Hindustan Unilever and Ultratech Cement. MARKETS witnessed the continuation of a positive trend, as investors cheered RBI’s statement that India's holding of IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) has gone up to SDR 13.66 billion which is equivalent to USD 19.41 billion as per exchange rate. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) makes the general SDR allocation to its members in proportion to their existing quotas in the multilateral lending agency. Traders also took some support with the finance ministry stating that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection topped the Rs 1-lakh-crore mark for the second straight month in August at Rs 1.12 lakh crore, signalling accelerating economic activity.

Key gauges added more gains in afternoon session, taking support from Jayanth R Varma, who is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank, stating that the ongoing economic recovery will quickly take India above the pre-pandemic levels in most sectors of the economy except contact-intensive services. He noted that the improved health of the Indian financial sector is also a positive factor for economic growth. Traders also took a note of report that the country received 24 per cent less than normal rainfall in August, a vast deviation from the IMD's predictions for the month, but latest forecasts say it is expected to be above normal in September. Meanwhile, markets regulator Sebi eased the framework about the time period for introducing liquidity enhancement schemes on securities by stock exchanges.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mixed on Thursday as investors awaited the U.S. initial jobless claims report due later today and the all-important nonfarm payrolls report due Friday for clues about the Fed's timelines for asset tapering and interest rate hikes. European markets were trading mostly in green amid Eurostat data released earlier in the day showed that Euro zone producer prices rose more than expected in July on the back of a jump in the prices of energy and intermediate goods. Back home, on the sectoral front, power stocks were in focus as power ministry data showed that India's power consumption grew 18.6 per cent in August to 129.51 billion units (BU) and remained higher than the pre-COVID level due to improved economic activities amid easing of lockdown curbs by states.

Finally, the BSE Sensex rose 514.33 points or 0.90% to 57,852.54, while the CNX Nifty was up by 157.90 points or 0.92% to 17,234.15. 

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 57,892.37 and 57,287.79, respectively and there were 22 stocks advancing against 8 stocks declining on the index.   

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index rose 0.93%, while Small cap index was up by 0.80%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were FMCG up by 1.56%, IT up by 1.54%, Consumer Durables up by 1.50%, TECK up by 1.36% and Basic Materials up by 1.29%, while Auto down by 0.25% and Oil & Gas down by 0.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were TCS up by 3.34%, Hindustan Unilever up by 2.50%, Ultratech Cement up by 2.45%, Dr. Reddy's Lab up by 1.96% and Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 1.88%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 2.29%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.79%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.41%, Bajaj Finance down by 0.31% and Asian Paints down by 0.08% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sharply increased its allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to India, in line with the country's existing quota in the fund. The RBI said IMF has made an allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) equivalent to around $17.86 billion to India on August 23. This increase in SDR holdings will be reflected in the Foreign Exchange Reserves (FER) data that shall be published for the week ended August 27, 2021.

SDR holding is one of the components of the foreign exchange reserves of a country. The IMF makes the general SDR allocation to its members in proportion to their existing quotas in the Fund. The Board of Governors of the IMF had approved a general allocation of about SDR 456 billion on August 2, 2021, effective from August 23, 2021, of which the share of India is SDR 12.57 billion.

RBI’s data had showed the country's foreign exchange reserves declined by $2.47 billion to reach $616.895 billion in the week ended August 20. In the previous week ended August 13, 2021, the reserves had declined by $2.099 billion to $619.365 billion. The forex kitty had touched a lifetime high of $621.464 billion in the week ended August 6, 2021.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 17,245.50 and 17,059.70 and there were 36 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index. 

The top gainers on Nifty were Shree Cement up by 5.98%, HDFC Life Insurance up by 5.77%, Cipla up by 3.48%, TCS up by 3.04% and Hindustan Unilever up by 2.50%. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.94%, Coal India down by 0.92%, Bajaj Auto down by 0.86%, Divi's Laboratories down by 0.76% and Tata Motors down by 0.75% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in green; France’s CAC increased 4.49 points or 0.07% to 6,763.18 and Germany’s DAX increased 1.37 points or 0.01% to 15,825.66, while UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 5.29 points or 0.07% to 7,144.55.

Asian markets ended mixed on Thursday as investors were cautious ahead of the release of the US Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report on Friday, which is crucial for the US Federal Reserve's tapering timeline. Chinese stocks ended higher as investors hoped Chinese soft economic data could lead to roll out further stimulus measures. China's Central Bank (PBoC) said it would provide CNY300 billion ($46.41 billion) of low-cost funding to support small-and medium-sized firms. Moreover, Japanese shares gained despite worries about unprecedented spread of the delta variant of the corona-virus.

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