Closing Bell: Markets continue winning streak for 8th straight session; Sensex up by 38 points, Nifty settles above 17,950

The Indian markets extended their rally for the eighth straight session on Thursday after witnessing a gap-down opening. Both the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty50 closed marginally higher, led by metal, FMCG, banking, and financial stocks.

At the market close, BSE Sensex gained by 37.87 points or 0.06 per cent to 60,298, while Nifty50 surged by 12.25 points or 0.07 per cent to 17,956.3. Outperforming the benchmarks, the broader markets such as mid-cap and small-cap each gained by 0.23 and 0.17 per cent respectively at the close.

As many as 24 stocks advanced and 25 declined, while one remained unchanged at the close. Private lender Kotak Mahindra Bank was the top Nifty gainer up by nearly 4 per cent, followed by L&T up over 2 per cent and Tata Consumer up over 1.5 per cent at the close.

While other stocks such as UltraTech Cement and IndusInd Bank each up by 1.5 per cent at the market close.

On the contrary, Dr Reddy and UPL each slipped by over 2 per cent, followed by Wipro, BPCL and Infosys each fell between 1-2 per cent at the market close today.

Sectorally, Nifty Metal gained most by nearly 1 per cent, followed by Nifty FMCG and Bank each up by over 0.5 per cent and Nifty Financial Service gained by 0.3 per cent. Conversely, Nifty IT and Auto dragged the market most as each fell by 0.8 and 0.5 per cent at the market close.

Markets traded in a narrow range on the weekly expiry day and ended almost unchanged, taking a breather after the recent surge; meanwhile, a mixed trend across the sectoral pack and buoyancy on the broader front kept the participants busy, Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking Ltd said.

“We’re in the fifth successive week of advance and rotational buying across sectors helping the index maintain the prevailing trend.  We’re eyeing 18,100 in Nifty and reiterate our view to continue with the “buy on dips” approach,” the analyst at Religare Broking further said.

Participants should focus more on stock selection after the recent surge and focus more on the sectors/stocks which are trading in sync with the benchmark instead of focusing on laggards, Mishra advised.