Sensex, Nifty50 scale fresh peaks in special Saturday session to test disaster recovery site

Special Saturday trading session (March 2, 2024): Domestic equity benchmarks registered fresh record highs in special, two-part trading operations conducted on Saturday, March 2, led by gains in metal, IT and FMCG stocks, with the market already boosted by strong macroeconomic data that supported hopes of an early start to reductions in benchmark interest rates. Among index heavyweights, Tata Steel, ITC and JSW Steel led the market higher, whereas counters such as Reliance and ICICI Bank played spoilsport, limiting the upside. 

The Sensex ended 60.8 points, or 0.1 per cent, higher at 73,806.2 while the Nifty50 settled at 22,378.4, up 39.7 points, or 0.2 per cent, from its previous close—both record closing highs. Both gauges also scaled lifetime highs in intraday trade, surpassing their peaks registered in a spectacular session the previous day. 

Stock exchanges BSE and NSE conducted two special sessions, after consultations with market regulator Sebi, to the capabilities of stock exchanges BSE and NSE to handle major disruption or failure at the primary site and test the switchover to the disaster recovery site. 

Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp rose the most among the 35 gainers in the Nifty basket, whereas Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki declined about 0.7 per cent each.

While most sectors finished the day in green territory, private sector financial stocks stood out as an exception with sluggish moves. The Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Private Bank indices finished almost unchanged, whereas State Bank of India (SBI) and Canara Bank helped the PSU bank index eke out a gain of 0.6 per cent. 

Tata Steel, SAIL, JSW Steel and Hindalco, closing around 1-4 per cent higher, aided a 1.6 per cent rise in the Nifty Metal gauge. 

Broader indices Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 outperformed the headline indices with gains of 0.7 per cent each.  

Overall market breadth favoured the bulls in a big way throughout the session, with as many as 13 rising stocks for every five falling on BSE at the end of trade. 

Meanwhile, official data released on Friday showed the government's GST collections grew 12.5 per cent to Rs 1.68 lakh crore in February. Separate data released this week indicated the country's GDP expanded 8.4 per cent in the October-December period, boosted by double-digit expansion in the manufacturing sector much better than an average reading of 6.6 per cent reading expected by most economists.

Catch all the highlights of the special Saturday session on Dalal Street on March 2 here. For all other news related to business, politics, tech and auto, visit Zeebiz.com.