Sensex Sprints 659 pts at Close, Nifty Near 17,800; Financial & IT Stocks Lead

Sensex Today: Indian equities shrugged off the weak sentiment witnessed during the last couple of days and climbed higher on Thursday, after oil prices fell in the international market. Technology and bank stocks led the rally and were among the top gainers. The S&P BSE Sensex settled the day at 59,688, up 659 points or 1.12 per cent. The Nifty50, on the other hand, closed near the 17,800-mark at 17,799, higher by 174 points or 0.99 per cent.

Shree Cement, BPCL, Tech M, Axis Bank, M&M, ICICI Bank, Ultratech Cement, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finserv, and SBI gained in the range of 2 per cent to 5 per cent, while Hindalco, SBI Life, Tata Steel, Coal India, Tata Consumer Products, and Tata Motors fell over 1 per cent.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: “The domestic financial market experienced a wave of optimism tracking strength across global markets as oil prices eased, cooling investor concerns about rising inflation. Despite premium valuations, consistent FII inflows are aiding Indian bourses to stay resilient. On the sectoral front, auto stocks were in focus as retail sales of automobiles grew 8.31 per cent YoY in august while banking stocks moved in sync.”

The broader markets, though in the positive zone, underperformed the benchmarks today. The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices added 0.3 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.

Sectorally, the Nifty PSU Bank index surged 2.5 per cent, while the Nifty Metal index fell 0.76 per cent.

Sahaj Agrawal, Head of Research- Derivatives at Kotak Securities, said Nifty continues to trade with a medium term positive bias and buying on dips with high volatility.

“Current trend support is seen at 17,000 and resistance placed at 18,000/18,100. Short term momentum remains positive despite multiple bearish attempts. Most heavy weight stocks are trading in uptrend and away from the buying zone. Limited opportunities available to go fresh aggressively long. Pharma and energy stocks look attractive,” he said.

Global Cues

Asian benchmarks mostly rose Thursday, as investor optimism got a perk from a rally on Wall Street that’s on track to break a three-week losing streak.Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 surged nearly 2.0 per cent in morning trading to 27,964.16. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.8 per cent to 6,783.80. South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.4% to 2,385.55. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.3 per cent to 18,986.70, while the Shanghai Composite rose nearly 0.1 per cent to 3,248.76.

Tokyo stocks opened higher on Thursday as investors cheered rallies on Wall Street, but they were also eyeing the dollar’s surge on lingering fears of aggressive US rate hikes.

US stock indexes climbed the most in roughly a month as bond yields eased, with investors shrugging off hawkish remarks made by Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday.

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