FINAL TRADE: Sensex zooms 710 pts, Nifty ends at 18,264; auto, bank stocks shine

The bulls ended Monday's session (May 8, 2023) in a style as the market witnessed heavy buying across the board. At close, the 30-share index Sensex ended at 61,764.25, up 710 points, or 1.16 per cent while the NSE's Nifty closed the session at 18,264.40, up 195 points, or 1.08 per cent. Barring Consumer Durables, all the sectoral indices ended in the green on the BSE. On Sensex, IndusInd Bank (up 5 per cent) emerged as the top gainer, followed by Tata Motors and Bajaj Finance - both up over 4 per cent. On the contrary, Sun Pharma was the biggest laggard. Reliance Industries (RIL), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, and HDFC were the major contributors to the Sensex's gains.

Commenting on bank stocks, Kunal Shah, Senior Technical and Derivative analyst at LKP Securities, says "The BANK NIFTY bulls after Friday's sell-off once again witnessed buying momentum and the index surpassed the level of 43,000 which will now act as support on the downside. The immediate hurdle on the upside is placed at 43,500 and once taken out on a closing basis will witness a sharp short covering towards all-time high levels."

BROADER MARKET

The second-rung stocks, too, participated in the broader market rally; however, they underperformed large-caps. The S&P BSE MidCap index added 0.94 per cent to 26,095.44 while the S&P BSE SmallCap index gained 0.56 per cent to 29,448.32 levels. Jai Balaji Industries (up 20 per cent) was the top gainer on the small-cap index, followed by Jtekt India (up 13 per cent). Meanwhile, the fear gauge, India VIX, rose nearly 3 per cent to 12.64 levels.

“While the undertone continued to remain bullish, the upbeat US market close last Friday further buoyed the local market sentiment. Hopes of the interest rate hike cycle reaching its peak and banking woes in the US receding, investors latched upon rate-sensitive stocks of banking, automobile and realty as strong monthly sales numbers are pointing towards a decent recovery. Technically, after a last Friday correction, the benchmark Nifty one more time took support near 18,050 and bounced back sharply. Post reversal, the index successfully cleared the short-term resistance of 18200 which is broadly positive. On daily charts, the index has formed a bullish candle and currently, it is comfortably trading above the 18200 level, which would be the sacrosanct support level. Above the same, the index could move up till 18350-18400, while on the flip side below 18200, the uptrend would be vulnerable," said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd.

BUZZING STOCKS

Britannia Industries scaled a record high on Monday after the Tiger glucose biscuit manufacturer reported a strong set of results for the January-March period. The Britannia stock hit a record high of Rs 4,700.4 apiece on BSE. The stock, however, lost some steam later and finally ended at Rs 4,600.00, down half a per cent. Adani Transmission and Adani Total Gas shares hit a lower circuit today. The shares fell after MSCI updated that it will lower the free float of the two Adani Group companies. Adani Transmission opened and hit a lower circuit at Rs 949.05, down by Rs 49.95. Besides, Adani Total Gas opened at 880 and hit a lower circuit at Rs 872.90 and later resumed trading. The financial index provider sees the Adani Total Gas' free float at 14% and Adani Transmission at 10 per cent, from 25 per cent. Coal India ends nearly 2 per cent lower to Rs 232.90 after disappointing Q4 numbers.