On 20th August, Nifty and Sensex extended their gains due to a rally in IT and banking stocks. Investors are now looking forward to the Federal Reserve’s July meeting minutes and a speech from Chair Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole symposium for insights on US interest rates.

At 12:00 PM, the Sensex was up 429.83 points (+0.53%) at 80,854.51, and the Nifty was up 135.30 points (+0.55%) at 24,708.00. The advancing shares numbered 1,948, declining shares 1,394, and 87 shares were unchanged.

The mid-cap and small-cap indices outshone the headline indices, surging 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively. The broader market has lured more investor interest and has outperformed the Sensex this year despite high valuations.

India’s VIX fell by over 2% to around 14, continuing a downtrend with a 12% decline over the last 5 sessions.

Nifty Bank and IT indices were top performers at 1.2% and 0.8% each, propped up by shares of HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and IndusInd Bank. IndusInd shares rose after receiving RBI approval for a new asset management subsidiary.

FMCG and Metal indices were the only losers, with Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, and Adani Enterprises seeing the largest slips.

The major Nifty gainers include SBI Life Insurance, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Life Insurance, Bajaj Finserv, and Shriram Finance, while the losers include ONGC, Adani Enterprises, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, and Tata Consumer Products.

Allcargo Logistics shares surged nearly 12% after a strong July business update. The company’s LCL volume for July was 8.18 lakh cubic meters, reflecting a 6% MoM and 5% YoY increase, matching its highest-ever monthly volume from August 2022.

Nucleus Software shares hit a 20% upper circuit limit at Rs 1,411 on 20th August, as the company plans to consider a share buyback on 22nd August. This would be the third buyback for Nucleus, following those in 2017 and 2021, and could be conducted via a tender offer or open market purchase.

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