Nifty 7 pts shy of 18,000 mark as financial, IT, oil & gas shares aid market recovery

Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 recovered initial losses aided by financial, IT, FMCG and oil & gas shares, amid mixed moves across global markets ahead of a key meeting of the Bank of Japan this week. Analysts awaited more of corporate earnings from India Inc for domestic cues, a day after Federal Bank reported a strong set of results. 

The Sensex rose as mch as 457.8 points or 0.8 per cent to 60,550.7 in the first hour of trade, after starting barely in the green at 60,142.1. The Nifty50 climbed to as high as 18,020, adding 125.2 points or 0.7 per cent to its previous close at the strongest level of the day so far. The 50-scrip index opened with a gain of 28 points at 17,922.80. 

At 9:30 am, the Sensex was left with a gain of 248.1 points at 60341.1 and the Nifty was at 17,950.5, up 55.6 points for the day.  

As many as 39 stocks in the Nifty50 bank held on to the green, with HUL, HCL Tech, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, NTPC, HDFC Bank, HDFC and ITC -- trading between 0.9 per cent and 2.6 per cent higher -- being the top gainers. 

On the other hand, Sun Pharma, BPCL, Bajaj Finance, Hero MotoCorp and Tata Steel -- down around half a per cent each -- were the top laggards.

Reliance, HDFC Bank and HUL were the biggest boosts for both headline indices, contributing almost 170 points to the gain in Sensex.

Editor's Take

Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi sees strong support for the Nifty50 in the 17,700-17,800 zone and resistance at 18,150-18,250. 

Most of oil & gas shares rose, a day after the government reduced its windfall tax on crude oil.

LIC shares edged lower to Rs 709 apiece on BSE, having swung between gains and losses in a narrow range ealrier in the day, after JPMorgan revised its rating for the stock to 'neutral' from 'overweight' and reduced its target price by Rs 60 to Rs 780.  

Overall market breadth was skewed in favour of the bulls, as 1,708 stocks rose and 1,355 fell in early deals on BSE. 

"The dominant trend impacting the near-term texture of the market is the sustained selling by FIIs. There is selling even in blue-chip names like HDFC Bank even after impressive Q3 results. The simple logic behind sustained FII selling is that India is the only large market where FIIs are still sitting on good profits after a disastrous performance in most global markets in 2022," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"FIIs are playing it safe by moving money to cheaper markets with valuation comfort," he said.

Global markets

Equities in other Asian markets saw mixed moves amid concerns the BoJ might temper its mega stimulus policy this week, with with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan trading 0.7 per cent lower at the last count. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 1.2 per cent, China's Shanghai Composite down 0.2 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 0.7 per cent. 

S&P 500 futures were down 0.3 per cent, suggesting a weak stsart ahead on Wall Street as investors return to trade later in the day after a long weekend. On Friday, the S&P 500 logged its highest close in a month with a gain of 0.4 per cent, the Dow Jones rose 0.3 per cent and the tech stocks-heavy Nasdaq Composite went up 0.7 per cent. 

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