Share Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty extend gains for third day as IT, consumer durables surge

Indian equity benchmarks on Monday extended their gains for the third straight session ahead of retail inflation data for August, scheduled to be released at 5:30 pm. Asian stock markets rallied today and Wall Street looked to extend Friday’s bounce and S&P 500 futures moved 0.48 per cent up, while Nasdaq futures gained 0.58 per cent.

The fall in global oil prices supported gains in domestic equities. India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, benefits from a fall in prices as it brings down imported inflation. Crude prices fell over prospects of further interest rate hikes in the United States and Europe, and demand concerns following the imposition of Covid-19 restrictions in China.

However, investors remained cautious ahead of the release of August retail inflation numbers; and industrial output (IIP) data for July. Market participants also awaited cues on the pace of the central bank’s rate hikes. A 75 basis points (bps) rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve is on the cards. The Fed meeting would be held on September 21.

“The most important bullish factor that has caused and is sustaining India’s market outperformance is the strong growth recovery underway in India now. RBI’s report which puts bank credit growth now running at 15.5 per cent is an endorsement of this fact. Bank Nifty which has outperformed Nifty by 11 per cent is a reflection of this strong undercurrent in the banking segment. Even though valuations are high it appears that this rally has more steam to go up,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Here are the stock market highlights: