Thank you readers! Here are the key highlights from today's session

- Sensex & Nifty End At Record Closing Highs

Closing Bell: Sensex, Nifty end at record close led by banks, financials

Indian indices ended at a record close on Tuesday with Nifty crossing the 13,000-mark for the first time ever as signs of progress on a COVID-19 vaccine spurred hopes for a faster economic recovery. The gains were mainly led by banking and financial stocks, however other major sectors like auto, metal and pharma also contributed to the highs. The Sensex ended 446 points higher to its record closing high of 44,523 while the Nifty rose 129 points to its record close at 13,055. The benchmarks hit record highs in intra-day deals as well. The Sensex rose as much as 524 points to its all-time high of 44,601.63 while the Nifty gained 152 points to its new high of 13,079. 

Broader markets were also positive with Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap indices up 0.7 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively. All sectors were also in the green led by Nifty Bank, up 2.5 percent. Nifty Auto and Nifty Fin Servcies were also up over 1.5 percent, while Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma rose over 1 percent each. On the Nifty50 index, Adani Ports, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Eicher Motors and Hindalco were the top gainers hwile Titan, HDFC, BPCL, Nestle and GAIL led the losses.

Nifty Midcap index outperforms benchmark in 8 straight sessions

3 stocks -- Navin Fluorine, Escorts and Adani Gas -- from the Nifty Midcap 100 index have also doubled investor wealth in this time. While Adani Enterprises, IPCA Labs, Mindtree, Syngene, Alembic Pharma, Vodafone Idea, Balkrishna Industries, PI Industries, Apollo Hospitals, Ajanta Pharma, Coforge, SRF, Jubilant Food, Natco Pharma, Dr Reddy's and Coromandel International gained between 50 percent and 95 percent in 2020. More here

Goldman Sachs expects 18% dollar returns for Asia-Pacific equity markets in 2021

Goldman Sachs, in a recent report, said that it expects 18 percent total dollar returns for the Asia Pacific equity markets in 2021 as the global economy has started recovering from the pandemic and earnings have rebounded. The overarching macro theme for 2021 is a robust growth recovery, the brokerage firm stated. Economists from Goldman Sachs expect above-consensus GDP growth globally (6 percent) and in Asia ex-Japan (7.5 percent). 

In terms of the current market setup, cyclicals have outperformed defensives by 15 percent over the past 6 months. GS thinks against a backdrop of improving growth, a modest increase in yields and light investor positioning, cyclicals have room to rally further. Location-wise, GS favors north Asia and is overweight on China and Korea. It also raised India back to 'overweight'. It further favours cyclicals and raises weights in autos and transportation but lowered in healthcare. More here

Nifty scales 13,000 mark; deploy buy on dips for next target of 13,200

After hitting a two-year low of 7,511 in March this year, the benchmark Nifty scaled its all-time high crossing the 13,000 level mark on Tuesday. Thus, it has taken nearly eight months for the Nifty to gain over 73 percent. The Sensex too, meanwhile, has scaled an all-time high level of above 44,500. The robust gains in the domestic equity market are on the back of positive developments over the COVID-19 vaccine that has boosted investors' risk appetite amid growing prospects of speedy global economic recovery.

Goa govt issues Rs 156 crore demand notice to JSW Steel

The Goa government has issued a demand notice to JSW Steel Ltd, handling coal at Mormugao Port Trust (MPT), to pay Rs 156.34 crore in the form of Goa Rural Improvement and Welfare Cess, within a fortnight, for transportation of coal. In a demand notice issued on November 9, 2020, a copy of which was released on Monday, the Assistant Director of Transport has asked JSW Steel to pay Rs 156.34 crore to the state within 15 days.

The notice said that the company representative may face punishment with imprisonment of two years or fine of Rs 25,000 if the cess is not paid. Read more here.

Market Watch: Shrikant Chouhan of Kotak Securities

Currently, we are seeing a lot of activity in real estate companies. Among real estate stocks, we like Sobha Ltd which is currently trading around Rs 315-316 and we feel that it is heading for at least Rs 340-345 in the next few days. So it is a buy at these prices with a stop loss at Rs 304 on the downside.

In the pharmaceutical space, we like Sun Pharmaceutical Industries which is really doing well. On weekly basis, the stock is forming some tight consolidation formation and based on that we can see the levels of around Rs 540-550 on the higher side. So it is a buy at these prices around Rs 515-516 with a stop loss at Rs 504 on the downside and we can expect Rs 540 on the higher side.

Buzzing | Datamatics Global Services share price hit 10 percent upper circuit after the Board of Directors of the company approved to dispose off the entire stake which is indirectly held by the company in its step down and material foreign subsidiary, namely CIGNEX Datamatics, Inc.

IRCON wins NCRTC order; expects FY21 order inflow at Rs 7,000 crore

Engineering and construction PSU company - IRCON International has bagged a Rs 723 crore order from the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC). Sunil Kumar Chaudhary, Chairman and Managing Director at IRCON discussed this and the orderbook.

“This order by NCRTC is Rs 723 crore and it will be executed in around three to three and a half years’ time,” he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“Order inflow for the Q2 is around Rs 3,000 crore,” he added. He expects order inflow for FY21 to be around Rs 7,000 crore. Watch the full interview here.

Buzzing | Stock price of GMR Infrastructure declined over 3 percent after arbitration tribunal asked arm GMR Kamalanga to pay Rs 1,092 crore to SEPCO Electric Power Construction towards project payments and prolongation costs.

Buzzing | The shares of Steel Strips Wheels rallied over 4 percent after the company won export orders for nearly 62,000 wheels from the US and EU market to be executed in January and February from its Chennai plant.

Hemang Jani, Head - Equity Strategy, Broking & Distribution, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd

The overall sentiments are strong and the market outlook is positive going forward. If the foreign fund inflows continue we can see higher levels on Nifty in the coming days/weeks. Nifty can possibly touch 13200-13400 levels also. But it also depends on the sustainability of the economic growth over the next few months post-festive season.

Hence at the current market levels, it is advisable to partially book profits and sit on 15-20 percent cash in the portfolio. Any corrections in the market can be used to deploy funds at lower levels.

Bitcoin at $100,000 in 2021? Outrageous to some, a no-brainer for backers

Bitcoin is within sight of its all-time peak of just under USD 20,000 hit in December 2017. It debuted in 2011 at zero and was last trading at USD 18,415. Going from USD 18,000 to USD 100,000 in one year is not a stretch, Brian Estes, chief investment officer at hedge fund Off the Chain Capital, said. ”I have seen bitcoin go up 10X, 20X, 30X in a year. So going up 5X is not a big deal.” More here

Shriram City Union: Can't be standalone NBFC if Shriram Transport becomes a bank

Brent hits highest since March, spurred by coronavirus vaccine hopes

Brent crude prices hit their highest levels since March as news of a third promising vaccine candidate spurred hopes of a quick recovery in oil demand, while US President-elect Joe Biden received the go-ahead to begin his presidential transition.  Brent crude futures rose 34 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $46.40 a barrel by 0323 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude added 38 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $43.43 a barrel. Brent crude oil rose to a session high of $46.56 earlier, the highest level traded since early March before Saudi Arabia initiated a price war with Russia, which sent oil prices crashing. Both oil benchmarks settled up about 2 percent on Monday after gaining about 5 percent last week. More here

Positive on IDFC First Bank, RIL, Alkem, says Dipan Mehta of Elixir

Dipan Mehta, Director, Elixir Equities is positive on IDFC First Bank, Reliance Industries (RIL) and Alkem Laboratories. “IDFC First Bank is one of the top banks to buy in this market. Other banks also are quite interesting but this one had a good track record and very dynamic management,” he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

According to him, all these banks certainly will benefit if the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) goes ahead and changes its policy as far as ownership norms are concerned. AU Small Finance Bank is the best pick as far as small finance banks are concerned, he said. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) is one of the best picks within the pharmaceutical space. He is positive on Alkem Laboratories too. Watch video for more

Focus on largecaps; cement will continue to do well: Avendus Capital

Bank licences for corporates or NBFCS owned by corporates are both paths to disaster

Ratings agency S&P also sounded alarm bells. "We are, skeptical of allowing corporate ownership in banks given India's weak corporate governance amid large corporate defaults over the past few years," wrote S&P Director Geeta Chugh. She argued that in addition, any weakness in the corproate sector will have a contagion impact on the financial sector. More here

HDFC Bank shares hit 52-week high after CLSA raises target price

The share price of HDFC Bank gained over 1 percent to hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 1,423.35 apiece in the early trade on Tuesday after the global brokerage CLSA maintained its positive view on the stock and raised the target price. CLSA maintained a 'Buy' call on the stock and raised the target price to Rs 1,700 per share from Rs 1,525 earlier. HDFC Bank remains one of CLSA’s top picks. The brokerage is of the view that the macro environment has improved materially after lockdown, and that coupled with better use of data, analytics and bureau to underwrite is leading to lower retail stress versus past cycles. More here

Technical View | We finally achieved the 13,000 levels. It is heartening to see that the Nifty is maintaining above it. The markets would attempt 13,100-13,200 in this rally up which would be a significant resistance zone. We have good support at 12,700 so any dip can be utilized to accumulate positions for a target of 13,100-13,200, Manish Hathiramani, Proprietary Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments.

Nifty Bank Index rallied over 1 percent led by the RBL Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank.

Market Watch: Shubham Agarwal, CEO & Head Of Research, Quantsapp Advisory

JUST IN: NSE expels Karvy Stock Broking & declares it as a defaulter effective November 23