Muhurat Trading: Sensex adds over 300 pts, Nifty settles above 24,300; auto stocks shine

Indian equities after ushering in the new Samvat 2081 on a solid note ended higher amid across-the-board buying. At the close, Nifty ended at 24,304.35, up 0.41 per cent or 99 points while the Sensex gained 335.06 points or 0.42 per cent at 79,724.12.

Broader markets, in comparison, ended higher, with the Nifty Smallcap 100 settling nearly 1 per cent higher.

Sectorally, auto index logged the most gains ending over 1 per cent higher, led by gains in stocks including, M&M, Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp among others. This is as investors are closely tracking October sales number from auto majors.

For the previous month, Maruti Suzuki India clinched total sales (comprising domestic as well as foreign market sales) of 2,06,434 units, translating to an increase of 3.6 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

Other indices that posted solid gains include Consumer Durable, Oil & Gas, PSU Banking and Metal, with IT pack turning out to be the only laggard with a mild negative return.

Within the Nifty pack, top gainers in the special trading session were M&M, ONGC, Bharat Electronics, Adani Ports and Eicher Motors, however top losers included stocks such as Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Britannia, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra and Grasim Industries.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "With Nifty returning 25 percent and Nifty 500 returning 30 percent in Samvat 2080, investors should be happy. But the 6.2 per cent correction in October, the first above 5 percent correction in 54 months, has triggered anxiety over the market performance, going forward. Of serious concern is the relentless FII selling in October amounting to Rs 113858 crores through the exchanges."

Given India’s elevated valuations and concerns over deceleration in earnings growth, FII selling might continue, impacting the benchmark indices. In such a scenario investors should focus on stock-specific investments where Q2 results have been good and earnings visibility is bright, added Vijaykumar.