Sensex reclaims 60,000 mark, Nifty ends near 17,750; financials rally

The bulls made an impressive comeback in the second half of the session on April 24, 2023, amid buying in banking, financial services, and metal counters. The S&P BSE Sensex ended above the crucial 60,000 mark at 60,056.10, up 401.04 points, or 0.67 per cent while the NSE's Nifty settled at 17,743.40, up 119 points, or 0.68 per cent.

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC and SBI were the top contributors to the Sensex's rally while Maruti and Sun Pharma capped the gains. 

The volatility index, India VIX stood at 11.67 levels, up 0.32 per cent.  

ICICI Bank ended over 2 per cent higher at Rs 904.65 on the BSE after it reported better-than-expected March quarter numbers. Reliance Industries (RIL) pared gains and ended at Rs 2,357.15, up 0.35 per cent. RIL's Q4 numbers beat analysts' estimates. 

Sun Pharma, on the other hand, ended over 1 per cent lower at Rs 977.80 on the BSE after the US FDA directed the company to take certain corrective actions at the Mohali (Punjab) facility before releasing final product batches into the US.

"A small positive candle was formed on the daily chart with a long lower shadow. Technically, this pattern indicates an upside breakout of smaller range movement at 17,650 levels. However, the recent formation of a bearish engulfing pattern as per the daily and weekly timeframe chart remains intact. A decisive move above 17,865 levels is expected to negate this bearish pattern and that could probably open a sharp upside for the market ahead," Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities, said.

The analyst added that Nifty is showing signs of an upside breakout of the small narrow range. But, a decisive upside breakout could only occur on Nifty surpassing the crucial area of 17,865 levels in the coming sessions. That could possibly result in a sharp positive reversal for the Nifty. Immediate support is at 17,600 levels.

Apart from these, the Bank of Maharashtra stock made news as the scrip rallied 8 per cent to Rs 30.08 on the BSE after the lender reported a more than two-fold jump in its net profit at Rs 840 crore for the March quarter, helped by a decline in bad loans and a rise in interest income.

Broader market

The second-rung stocks underperformed frontline indices. The S&P BSE MidCap index gained 0.47 per cent to end at 24,961.78 levels while the S&P BSE SmallCap index ended 0.34 per cent lower at 28,329.13 levels.

Global markets

Global shares eased on Monday ahead of a week packed with economic data and central bank meetings, along with earnings from the tech giants that have kept the S&P 500 afloat this year. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures fell 0.4 per cent ahead of a busy week of earnings, while in Europe, the STOXX 600 was mostly flat in early trading. The MSCI All-World index eased 0.1 per cent. But it's still up almost 1 per cent in April and not far off one-year highs, thanks in large part to the strength in US tech stocks, Reuters said.