Sensex, Nifty In Green; Zomato Delivers Strong Returns

The BSE Sensex on Friday, July 23 ended higher by 138.59 points at 52,975.80, and the Nifty-50 index closed at 15,856.05, up by 32 points. The movement in the market throughout the day was alternating between green and red, however, advances in the Banking and IT stocks led the indices to close on a high.

The 30-share pack Sensex saw 16 advances and 14 declines in the intraday session on Friday. Shares of ICICI Bank and ITC ended among the top gainers of the index, advancing 2-3 per cent each ahead of their Q1 results scheduled on July 24.

Zomato became the top newsmaker of the day as the company got listed at Rs 116 on the exchanges at a premium of nearly 53 per cent against its issue price of Rs 76. Till 12:30 PM, shares of Zomato made a high of Rs 138 and drove the market capitalisation of the company above 1 lakh crore. The company ended the day at Rs 125.20 on the BSE.

Sneha Poddar, Research Analyst - Broking & Distribution at MOFSL, said, "There is lot of fancy for such unique and first of its kind listing in the market. Zomato with first mover advantage is placed in a sweet spot as the online food delivery market is at the cusp of evolution."

Among the sectors, except for Auto and Energy, all other sectors witnessed buying interest and ended in the green. The Banking and Realty index were the top performers, gaining over a per cent each. Shares of Mahindra Life jumped over seven per cent, while Indiabulls Realty gained over four per cent in the Realty pack.

On the flipside, Adani Ports, Larsen, Grasim, and Tata Motors ended among the top index losers as they shed between 1-2 per cent each on Friday.

Overall, nearly 1534 shares advanced, 1644 shares declined, and 115 shares were unchanged.

Moving ahead, experts feel that Q1 action so far has been in-line with expectations and is also providing some stock specific momentum to the markets and is likely to continue ahead. However, the indices have missed follow-ups at higher levels and a strong bull case scenario would be needed to drive the index above 16,000, experts added.