Benchmark indices ended higher for the sixth straight session in volatile trade on Friday. Sensex closed 104.25 points higher at 59,307.15. During the day, the index jumped 388.03 points to 59,590.93. Nifty closed marginally higher by 12.35 points at 17,576.30. Banking stocks led the gains with the BSE bankex zooming 948 pts to 46,849. Axis Bank was the top Sensex gainer closing 8.96 per cent higher after the bank reported a 66.29 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit in Q2 at Rs 5,625.25 crore, driven by a substantial fall in bad loan provisions and margin expansion.
Share Market News Today Live: Sensex, Nifty extend gains for sixth session as bank stocks surge
Amol Athawale, Deputy Vice President – Technical Research, Kotak Securities said, “There were not many fireworks on the Dalal Street on the eve of Diwali, but the only solace was that the markets managed to extend their winning run on the bourses, overcoming a small hiccup in late trades when volatility came into play for a short period. Technically, the Nifty successfully surpassed the 20 and 50 day simple moving averages resistance mark, which is largely positive. It has also formed a long bullish candle on weekly charts that suggest further uptrend from the current levels. For Nifty, 17500 and 17400 would act as key support zones. Above which, the index could move up to 17800-17950. On the flip side, if the index closes below 17500 or 50 day SMA mark, it could slip till 17400-17350.”
ICICI Bank (2.13%), Hindustan Unilever (2.11%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (2.05%), and Nestle (1.43%) were the other Sensex gainers. Bajaj Finance (3.20%), Bajaj Finserv (2.39%), IndusInd Bank (1.63%) and Larsen & Toubro (1.51%) and Asian Paints (1.38%) were among the top Sensex losers.
Of 30 Sensex shares, 13 closed higher. Market breadth was negative with 1,441 stocks ending higher against 1976 stocks falling on BSE. 141 shares were unchanged. Market cap of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 274.40 lakh crore.
Foreign institutional investors turned net buyers as they bought shares worth Rs 1,864.79 crore on Thursday, as per exchange data.
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Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, “Selling emerged in the second half led by a weak start to the European market due to the fear of tight monetary policy. Domestic investors maintained their caution and began to book profits in anticipation of the truncated week. Good start to Q2FY23 results by Banks, IT, and FMCG stocks maintained stability in the market but Mid & Small caps were heavily impacted. The rise in credit growth to a 10 year high of 17.94% YoY in October added colour to financial stocks.”
Previous session
Benchmark indices continued their rally for the fifth day on Thursday amid fag-end recovery in equities led by buying in IT stocks. Bouncing back from its early fall, Sensex climbed 95.71 points or 0.16 per cent to end at 59,202.90. During the day, it hit a high of 59,273.85 and a low of 58,791.28. Nifty ended 51.70 points or 0.30 per cent higher at 17,563.95.
Global markets
In other Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong ended lower, while Shanghai closed with gains. Stock exchanges in Europe were trading lower in mid-session deals. Wall Street had ended lower on Thursday. International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.37 per cent lower at $92.02 per barrel.