Indian benchmarks—the Nifty 50 and Sensex—reversed early losses to end the session on April 17 on a positive note. With this, the two benchmarks closed a truncated week, ending in the green on all three trading days.
Nifty 50 and the BSE Sensex indices extended gains for the fourth straight session on Thursday to close 1.8% and 2% higher at 23,851.65 points and 78,553.20 points, respectively. The stock market will remain closed on Friday in observance of Good Friday.
Sensex rallied over 1,500 points and Nifty reclaimed the 23,850-mark in a strong intraday recovery, led by firm global cues and sustained foreign fund inflows. Yesterday, Indian equities witnessed $793.36mn worth of net FPI inflows, according to the data available on NSDL website. The appreciation of the rupee against the dollar also bode well with FIIs, likely causing a buying spree in today’s session as well. However, Indian equities have seen $3.16bn of FPI outflows in April till Wednesday.
The rupee appreciated for a fifth straight session, mainly driven by an influx of overseas capital and a prevailing appetite for risk, Dilip Parmar, an analyst at HDFC Securities, said in a note.
Indian indices mirrored the trends seen across Asian markets, which bucked the weakness on Wall Street and inched higher in trade today.
On stock specific front, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and Eternal were the top performers in the 50-stock index, and closed 3-4% higher each. Bharti Airtel’s share price hit a fresh life-time high of Rs 1,897.70 on the NSE today. ICICI Bank has slashed its savings account interest rates by 25 basis points and has reduced fixed deposit rates by up to 50 bps on select tenures. This move came after other lenders slashed their deposit rates earlier this week.
ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel together pushed the index by 0.9%.
Among laggards, information technology major Wipro was the worst hit in the 50-stock index as it closed with over 4% cuts after the company guided for a softer June quarter due to limited client spending. The stock pulled the index down by 0.03%, and was the only scrip that weighed on the Nifty 50 index today.
InterGlobe Aviation and Swiggy closed 2% higher today after the companies signed a pact wherein IndiGo BluChip loyalty program members will earn rewards on Swiggy transactions.
Sentiment remained robust in the broader market as well, with almost all the sectoral indices, barring Nifty IT, closing on a higher note. Nifty Auto, Nifty Pharma, Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Healthcare, Nifty Oil & Gas and Nifty Private Bank closed 1-2% higher from its previous close. Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 Thursday closed 0.4% and 0.6% higher, respectively.
Expectations of favourable outcome from US-India trade negotiations and moderating inflation trajectory towards more comfortable levels are enhancing market sentiment, Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments said in a note.
Looking Ahead
Technically, the Nifty is now firmly positioned above all key moving averages, reinforcing the bullish trend across all time frames, Nandish Shah, deputy vice president of HDFC Securities, said in a note. The next significant resistance level for the Nifty is seen at 24,050 points, he added.
"Sustaining above the 23,900 level could pave the way for an extended rally towards 24,050," Hrishikesh Yedve, AVP of Technical and Derivatives Research at Asit C. Mehta Investment Interrmediates, said in a note.
