Indian headline indices kicked off the week on a stronger note and open higher on Monday tracking the firm global cues and buying in select index heavyweights.
Hopes over lesser aggressive US Fed and the opening of China’s borders bolstered the outlook for the global economy. Back home, trader’s focus will now shift to India Inc’s earnings as Tata Consultancy Services will announced its quarter results for October-December 2022 period today.
At 9.40, the 30-share pack BSE Sensex was trading 562.18 points or 0.94 per cent higher at 60,462.55, whereas NSE’s Nifty50 index was recorded at 18,029.05, rising 169.6 points or 0.95 per cent.
Broader markets outperformed the headline peers as BSE midcap and smallcap indices jumped about a per cent each. Fear gauge India VIX was up half a per cent at 15.1-level.
Investors minted more than Rs 2.96 crore during the first half-an hour of the Monday’s trading session as BSE’s total market cap jumped to Rs 282.71 lakh crore from Rs 279.75 lakh crore at the close on Friday.
The US economic data released on Friday is significant from the global market perspective. All data point to a strong but cooling US economy which indicates the rising possibility of a soft landing for the US economy, said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
“The market has already started discounting this with the dollar index declining below 104 and the US 10-year bond yield declining by 12bp. All signals are bullish,” he said. “In India the major drag has been the sustained FII selling. This is the data to watch.”
All the sectors of Nifty were trading higher on Monday. Metal stocks led the rally with a 2 per cent rise, followed by IT and Realty indices, which gained a per cent each. Autos and pharma counter also supported the gains.
On Nifty50, Tech Mahindra, Hindalco, Tata Motors and Tata Steel led the rally, with each rising two per cent. Bharti Airtel, JSW Steel, Wipro, IndusInd Bank and Adani Ports were among other top gainers.
Only five stocks on the NSE’s barometer were trading in red, led by a one per cent fall in Titan. ICICI Bank, Either Moters, HDFC Life Insurance and Britannia were the other laggards.
Among the broader markets, BCL Industries, Rama Steel Tubes, Uttam Sugar, Adani Wilmar, Shaily Engineering surged 5-20 per cent each. On the contrary, Indostar Capital, Gati and JP Associates dropped 4-5 per cent each.