Indian equity benchmarks rose sharply in Monday’s trade, halting their three-day losing run after US data hinted at less aggressive interest rate hikes. US payrolls expanded even as wage increases slowed and eased worries about the Federal Reserve’s future interest rate hike decisions. Also, investors shifted their focus to the corporate sector as earnings season kicks off today. As of 9:52 am, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 564 points or 0.94 per cent to trade at 60,465; while the broader NSE Nifty moved 171 points or 0.96 per cent to trade at 18,031. Except for consumer durables, all other sector indices were trading in the green, led by gains in technology, metals and pharma. Such was the rise in the domestic indices that nearly Rs 3 lakh crore of BSE market capitalisation (m-cap) was added. “In India, the major drag has been the sustained FII selling. This is the data to watch. If this too turns, Nifty can break out on the upside,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
Investor wealth, as suggested by the BSE m-cap, rose Rs 2.96 lakh crore to Rs 282.71 lakh crore compared with a valuation of Rs 279.75 lakh crore recorded yesterday. Frontline stocks such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Reliance Industries contributed to the climb.
As many as 101 stocks hit their 52-week lows today. BSE stocks such as Abbott India, IDBI Bank and Jindal Steel and 98 other stocks hit their respective one-year high levels. That said, 24 stocks touched their one-year low levels today.
Out of 3,233 stocks, 2,351 stocks were seen advancing. Only 748 stocks were declining while 134 stocks remained unchanged.
Shares of Tech Mahindra, TCS, HCL Tech, Tata Motors, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel and M&M rose as much as 3.34 per cent in early deals.
For Sensex, the major stocks that pulled the index higher were Reliance, Infosys, TCS, HDFC Bank, Airtel, ITC, HDFC, L&T, HCL Tech, HUL, M&M, Kotak Mahindra Bank, TechM and Axis Bank. Reliance, Infy and TCS contributed positively to around 250-point rise.
On NSE, 14 out of the 15 sub-indices were down. Only Nifty Consumer Durables fell 0.52 per cent.
Foreign institutional investors sold Rs 2,902.46 crore worth of equities on a net basis on Friday, while domestic investors bought about Rs 1,083.17 crore worth of shares, as per provisional NSE data.
On the global front, Asian markets were seen trading on a higher note today. Overnight gains on Wall Street on Friday helped gains.