Nifty hits 16,000 in historic day for Indian stock markets: 10 updates

Indian stock markets today hit new highs, lifted by gains in IT and consumer stocks. The sentiment was lifted by positive economic indicators which pointed to a demand recovery. The Nifty hit 16,000 for first time while Sensex was up over 500 points at 53,451, also a new high.

"Market today is trading at record high levels above 16k mark, it is a historic day for us. This surge in the market is backed up with strong performance from the industry leaders like HDFC from banking, TCS and Infosys from IT pack, big support is coming from FMCG giants like UBL, Britannia, Marico. Nifty Pharma is also supporting the current bullishness as big pharma counters like Sun Pharma, Lupin both are trading very strong today. From 15000 to 16000 levels Nifty Metals have been top contributor followed by IT," said Rahul Sharma, Co- Founder, Equity99.

"Now 16050 will be next Hurdle point , if we get closing above 16k mark 16100-16150-16200 will act as resistance to the Index."

Here are key updates from Indian markets:

"Sentiments in the Indian market remained positive with the GST collection increasing and the manufacturing sector gaining a boost and post strong growth in the month of July amid easing of Covid restrictions," said Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, CapitalVia Global Research Ltd.

"We have witnessed the breach of 15950 level, sustaining above 15950, we expect the market to gain momentum, leading to an upside projection till 16100-16150 level," he added

Today, both the Nifty IT and FMCG indices were up around 1%.

Among the Sensex stocks, Titan, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, HDFC and IndusInd Bank were up between 2-4%.

"Even though FIIs have been pressing sales at the upper end of the band 15550 - 15950 ( FIIs sold stocks worth ₹1540 yesterday also), the market momentum is not in their favour now. Fundamental support to the bulls has been coming from good corporate results. Now the macros are turning very positive with the declining fiscal deficit, rising tax collections, and now the excellent performance in exports which have shot by 48% in July," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"The PMI at 55.3 indicates a potential sharp turnaround in economic activity. This can embolden the bulls to take Nifty beyond 15950 early in August unless FIIs turn massive sellers at those levels," he said.

The broader markets underperformed today with both BSE midcap and smallcap indices trading flat today.

"Automobile OEMs in the passenger vehicle and the commercial vehicle segment reported strong volume recovery in July 2021. While passenger vehicle growth benefited from pent-up demand, preference for personal mobility and low base, the commercial vehicle segment's sequential recovery was aided by reopening of the economy," said Arun Agarwal, Deputy Vice President, Equity Research, Kotak Securities Ltd.

"In the two wheeler segment, domestic demand was sluggish, although export performance was strong. Tractor volumes were below expectations in July 2021 as slowdown in monsoon temporarily affected the sowing of Kharif crops," he added.

Elsewhere, other Asian markets were mostly weak today with spread of Delta coronavirus variant in key markets and Chinese officials crackdown on video game producers rattling investor confidence.