Markets make strong comeback with Sensex hitting 58k, Nifty crossing 17,100; RIL, banking stocks drive rally
2 min read 21 Mar 2023, 04:24 PM ISTA broad-based buying was seen across sectoral indices except for slight selling in IT, realty, and FMCG stocks. Heavyweight RIL and large-cap banking stocks were major drivers of market.
PremiumIndian markets recovered some of the previous losses on Tuesday due to broader buying in indices. Strong buying in large-cap banking stocks, coupled with a sharp upside in heavyweights, especially RIL lifted the performance. Sensex regained its psychological mark of 58,000 and Nifty 50 once again crossed over 17,100. Investors' focus has shifted towards US Federal Reserve's policy due later this week.
Sensex rose by 445.73 points or 0.77% to end at 58,074.68. Nifty 50 finished at 17,107.50 up by 119.10 points or 0.7%.
Talking about the market performance, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, "Gaining buoyancy from a slew of measures to shield the banking sector, global markets witnessed recovery ahead of the US Fed policy announcement on Wednesday. The momentum was passed onto domestic equities, which were led by large-cap banks. However, the gains were capped by IT stocks on caution over muted deal wins from the BFSI segment in the western markets."
A broad-based buying was seen across sectoral indices except for slight selling in IT, realty, and FMCG stocks. Banking and Consumer durables were top performers.
Bank Nifty surged by 533 points or 1.4%. BSE Bankex soared by 582 points or 1.3%. Among other sectoral indices, on BSE, Consumer Durables advanced nearly 588 points, Capital Goods jumped over 308 points, and Financial Services zoomed 1.4%.
Heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was the top gainer soaring by more than 3%, followed by Bajaj Finance which gained by 2.9%. Stocks like Titan, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv, and Ultratech Cements zoomed between 1.5-2.2%.
Among the top losers, on Sensex, Power Grid took the lead by tumbling 2% followed by Hindustan Unilever down by 1.9%, Tech Mahindra lower by 1.2%, and TCS slipping by 1.1%.
At the interbank forex market, the rupee depreciated against the US dollar on the back of a steady greenback, spike in crude oil prices, and stubborn foreign funds outflow despite positive domestic equities. However, the weakening of the rupee was limited. The local unit closed at 82.6550 per dollar against the previous print of 82.6350 per dollar.
Going ahead, Rohan Shah-head technical analyst at Stoxbox said, " Nifty remains rangebound today. Intraday traders can now look for long opportunities above the resistance level of 17,150 if it sustains for 15 minutes. Traders can look for fresh shorts only if nifty breaks the 17,000 level & remains below for 15 min to ensure short."
Meanwhile, Mitul Shah - Head of Research at Reliance Securities said, the markets will closely follow global cues and the developments in the US and European banking systems. Domestically, CPI and WPI have cooled and the trade deficit has narrowed. Brent crude prices have corrected 10% since the start of the US banking crisis which coupled with the cheaper crude from Russia and the fall in natural gas and coal prices is a huge tailwind for the Indian economy.
However, Shah pointed out that the unseasonal rains overnight have caused large-scale crop damage across large swathes of India. This is likely to keep food prices higher in the coming months. All eyes will be on the US Fed monetary policy meeting and its interest rate decision due tomorrow.
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