Sensex Reclaims 60,000 Mark, Nifty Inches Towards 18,000
Indian benchmark indices continued their upswing on Wednesday as the Sensex breached the psychological 60,000 mark and the Nifty inched towards the 18,000 mark. D-street bulls are riding on softening inflationary, strong FII buying and falling crude oil prices amid a weak demand outlook.
At close, the Sensex was up 417.92 points or 0.70 per cent at 60,260.13, and the Nifty was up 119 points or 0.67 per cent at 17,944.30. About 1941 shares have advanced, 1401 shares declined, and 119 shares are unchanged.
“Sensex hits 60k level after four month period led by consumption related stocks & sectors. From the macro factors, crude oil prices helped our markets to revive from lower levels. At one point Sensex was about to break the psychological level of 50k but the confidence in the domestic economy from the retail investors, domestic institutions and fund manager managers helped the markets to stay above it. The market is not far from crossing the levels all time highest levels,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities.
Except auto, all other sectoral indices ended in the green with PSU Bank and IT up 1-2 percent.
On the Sensex, Bajaj Twins were the stars of the day as Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance gained 5.74 per cent and 3.28 per cent respectively. Other gainers on the 30-share index included Airtel (2.55 per cent), Tech Mahindra (2.45 per cent), HCL Technologies (2.22 per cent) and NTPC (1.86 per cent).
Analysts believe domestic sentiment has been upbeat since strong corporate June-quarter results and with signs of cooling inflation, aided by softening commodity prices.
Foreign institutional investors have also been pumping money into Indian equities, having bought $2.83 billion worth of shares this month until Aug. 12, compared with an inflow of $618 million all through July, data showed.
"Nifty has staged a strong recovery in the past few weeks. This move has pushed the markets out of the consolidative/corrective phase it was in since past few months. Any correction in the near term should be used for buying for the medium term uptrend. An extended phase of consolidation is possible before the index attempts to move towards the 18600 mark. IT stocks remain strong while Metals continue to consolidate. Value is seen in select midcap stocks," said Sahaj Agrawal, Head of Research- Derivatives at Kotak Securities.
Investors will now keenly await the minutes of the Fed’s last policy meeting later on Wednesday for clues on macroeconomic indicators and the pace of future rate hikes.
