BSE Sensex rallied 180.22 points, or 0.34%, to settle in a seesaw trade at 52,973.84 points
BSE Sensex rallied 180.22 points, or 0.34%, to settle in a seesaw trade at 52,973.84 points
Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended their six-day losing streak on Monday after buying banking, auto and energy stocks amid mixed trends in global equities.
The 30-stock BSE Sensex rallied 180.22 points, or 0.34%, to settle in a seesaw trade at 52,973.84 points.
The index opened higher, climbing over 634 points in the first half of trading to an intraday high of 53,428.28. However, gains in IT and select heavyweight counters capped gains, dragging the index down some 800 points to a low of 52,632.48.
The broader NSE Nifty rose 60.15 points, or 0.38%, to 15,842.30, posting its first gain in seven sessions. Sensex and Nifty fell over 5% in the previous six sessions, driven by strong selling of FPIs on inflation concerns.
“Autos and banks helped benchmark indices stay in the green as rising inflation and its impact on discretionary spending worried investors. The broader markets have seen strong interest in companies likely to report strong results in the fiscal first quarter,” said S. Ranganathan, director of research at LKP Securities.
Ajit Mishra, vp-research, Religare Broking Ltd said that as markets closely follow global cues, the recovery in the US market also gives hope for some recovery on the domestic front.
Gains in HDFC twins, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI helped the indices end their losing streak.
HDFC rose 1.96%, HDFC Bank rose 1.1%. SBI rose 2.27%, Kotak Bank 1.83%, IndusInd Bank 1.61% and ICICI Bank 0.85%.
NTPC rose the most among Sensex stocks, rising 3.05%, followed by Bajaj Finance, which rose 2.37%. Among auto stocks, Maruti rose 2.14% and M&M rose 1.57%.
However, losses in IT and select FMCG meters capped the equity rally. Ultratech Cement was the biggest loser, down 3.01%. Asian Paints fell 2.15% while ITC declined 1.78%.
IT major TCS fell 1%, Tech Mahindra fell 1.22% and Infosys fell 0.94%.
“Continued selling by FIIs while chasing US high-yield bonds is limiting the Indian market from holding on to its pullback rally despite interest from domestic investors,” said Vinod Nair, research director at Geojit Financial Services.
Weakness in global equities combined with unfavorable global signals led to sharp selling towards the close as investors lacked confidence to add to their positions, Mr Nair added. Investors are currently in a de-risking phase and are looking for safe haven assets.
ACC and Ambuja Cements shares were in high demand after Gautam Adani’s group struck a deal to acquire a majority stake in Holcim Ltd’s operations in India for US$10.5 billion.
ACC shares gained 3.7% to close at ₹2,192, while Ambuja Cements gained 2.59% to close at ₹368.10.
Adani Group companies also posted gains, led by Adani Enterprises, which rose 2.53% to £2,107.05. Adani Power rose 4.99%.
Broader markets outperformed benchmark indices.
BSE MidCap is up 1.51% to 22,145.10, while BSE SmallCap is up 1.15% to 25,605.99 points.
Among sector indices, BSE Telecom was up 2.85%, Auto was up 2.2%, Utilities was up 2.17%, Energy was up 2.1%, Consumer Discretionary & Services was up 1.44%, Financials was up 1.45 and Bankex by 1.43%.
In contrast, BSE IT, Teck and FMCG lost up to 0.58%.
“The recent spate of negative news has prompted investors to reduce their exposure to equities. At one point the benchmark indices were doing great, but profit-taking again caused the markets to give up most of their early gains to end marginally higher. There are concerns that raising interest rates to curb higher inflation could hurt growth and lead to a further correction,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd.
Markets in Asia ended mixed with Hong Kong and Tokyo trading in the green while Seoul and Shanghai were marginally lower.
Stock exchanges in Europe were also mixed in the afternoon session.
The stock exchanges in the USA closed with big profits on Friday.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent fell 0.51% to $111 a barrel.
Overseas institutional investors continued their selling spree, selling ₹3,780.08 crore of shares, according to stock market data on Friday.
