The equity benchmarks bounced off day's low and hit the day's high in afternoon trade. The Nifty marched towards 13,000 mark while S&P BSE Sensex reclaimed 44,000 level. The recovery was backed by firmness in banks and financial stocks.

At 13:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, jumped 188.62 points or 0.43% at 44,016.72. The Nifty 50 index spurted 51.75 points or 0.40% at 12,910.15.

Trading was volatile as traders roll over positions in the F&O segment from the near month November series to December series. The November 2020 F&O contracts expire today, 26 November 2020.

The broader indices moved in tandem with the benchmarks. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.37%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.46%.

Buyers outnumbered the sellers. On the BSE, 1,538 shares rose and 1,059 shares fell. A total of 177 shares were unchanged.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 24.20 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 1,840.33 crore in the Indian equity market on 25 November 2020, provisional data showed.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 6,03,97,539 with 14,21,352 deaths. India reported 4,52,344 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 1,35,223 deaths while 86,79,138 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

SEBI Regulations:

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has withdrawn a proposal to increase the margin requirement for non-futures and options (F&O) stocks in the cash market. Earlier this year, as the volatility spiked in the stocks following COVID-19 pandemic and heavy fall in global equities, SEBI, on March 20 this year had proposed to raise the margin requirement for non-F&O stocks to 40% in a phased manner.

Economy:

RBI released Quarterly Statistics on Deposits and Credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) yesterday. Bank credit growth (Y-o-Y) decelerated to 5.8% in September 2020 from 8.9% a year ago: the deceleration was recorded across the population groups (i.e., rural, semi-urban, urban and metropolitan). Annual growth (Y-o-Y) in credit by private sector banks moderated significantly to 6.9% in September 2020 from 14.4% a year ago, whereas it increased marginally for public sector banks to 5.7% from 5.2% over the same period.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday said the country's economy has recovered stronger than expected from the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is a need to be watchful of demand sustainability after festivals and a possible reassessment of market expectations surrounding the vaccine.

Speaking at the annual day event of Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association of India (FEDAI), Das said there are downside risks to growth across the world and also in India. After witnessing a sharp contraction in the economy by 23.9% in Q1 and a multi-speed normalisation of activity in Q2, the Indian economy has exhibited stronger than expected pick-up in momentum of recovery, Das said.

Even as the growth outlook has improved, downside risks to growth continue due to recent surge in infections in advanced economies and parts of India, he added.

Das said regulatory reforms have moved the financial markets to the next trajectory amid the pandemic and affirmed RBI's commitment to ensure an orderly conduct in the markets. He also said that India will continue to approach capital account convertibility as a process, rather than as an event within a broad macroeconomic framework.

As a major milestone towards opening up of markets, banks in India have been permitted to deal in the offshore rupee derivative markets. Banks have also been permitted to undertake foreign exchange transactions beyond the usual onshore market hours, thus fostering real time market activity. In a complementary measure, exchanges and banking units in the GIFT City have been permitted to undertake over the counter (OTC) and exchange traded rupee derivatives.

Gainers & Losers:

Grasim Industries (up 2.96%), Bajaj Finance (up 2.78%), Axis Bank (up 2.58%), HCL Technologies (up 1.82%) and HDFC (up 1.54%) were major gainers in Nifty 50 index.

Eicher Motors (down 1.97%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 1.65%), BPCL (down 1.35%), Tech Mahindra (down 1.28%) and Britannia Industries (down 1.23%) were major losers in Nifty 50 index.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Laurus Labs rallied 2.88% after the company said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire 72.55% of Richcore's shares from Eight Roads Ventures and VenturEast for a value of Rs 246.70 crore. The acquisition marks Laurus Labs' entry into the broader biologics and biotechnology segments, providing the company access to its high growth areas, globally and in India. Laurus Labs will help and drive Richcore to achieve scale and improve product offerings. With this acquisition, Laurus adds a fourth revenue stream to its three existing divisions - API, formulations and synthesis. Following the successful closure of the transaction, Richcore will be renamed to Laurus Bio.

Union Bank of India gained 1.69% after the bank announced plans to raise the equity capital upto Rs 6,800 crore during the FY 2020-21. The public sector bank said it will raise funds through various modes such as public issue (i.e. follow-on public offer) and/or rights issue and/or private placements, including qualified institutions placement and/or preferential allotment to the Government of India and/or other institutions and/or through any other modes subject to approval of the Government of India and other regulatory authorities.

Global Markets:

European indices opened higher while Asian stocks continued to trade higher on Thursday as investors reacted to minutes released overnight from the U.S. Federal Reserve's November meeting. The Bank of Korea on Thursday held steady on its key policy rate at a record low of 0.5%.

In US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index closed lower on Wednesday as mounting U.S. layoffs in the wake of new mandated lockdowns to contain surging COVID-19 infections dampened investor risk appetite. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed.

The summary of the Fed meeting from earlier this month indicated that U.S. central bank officials discussed ways of getting more money into the economy, which is still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits increased further last week. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 778,000 for the week ended 21 November 2020, compared to 748,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Wednesday.

U.S. financial markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and U.S. bonds and stocks will trade on a partial schedule on Friday.

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