Nifty and BSE Sensex Continue to Surge While Dow Futures Points to a Decline

By Aditya Raghunath

Investing.com -- Nifty and BSE Sensex defied global cues to close higher for the second day this week with Nifty gaining 0.28% and Sensex up 0.4%. Asian markets have closed lower and Europe has opened lower as virus cases surge and there is no confirmation on the U.S. stimulus package.

Indian markets were not affected by the nationwide call of Bharat Bandh in support of the farmer's protests. PSU banks led the rally today with Indian Bank (NS: INBA ) gaining 18.95%, Canara Bank (NS: CNBK ) closing 18.87% higher, and PNB (NS: PNBK ) closing up 14.97%. Metal and pharma indices on the exchange lost over a per cent each.

UltraTech Cement (NS: ULTC ) gained 3.06%, while mega-caps such as TCS (NS: TCS ) ended up 2.09% and Reliance Industries Ltd (NS: RELI ) rose 1.75%. Losers on the Nifty were Hindalco Industries Ltd. (NS: HALC ) down 2.29% and Sun Pharma (NS: SUN ) down 2.23%.

U.S. stocks are set to extend Monday’s losses when markets open later, as concern about the spread of lockdown measures to tackle the pandemic returns to haunt cyclical stocks.

Frustration at the lack of progress in agreeing on a fiscal relief package on Capitol Hill is also playing a part. Aside from the differences over the sticker price of relief measures, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is also refusing to approve any bill that doesn’t include provisions protecting businesses from lawsuits by employees who catch the disease at work.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is set to release a document of around 100 pages evaluating Pfizer Ltd . (NS: PFIZ )/BioNTech’s clinical trial data later Tuesday, ahead of a meeting on Thursday to decide on whether approve the drug for emergency use authorization