Bulls on rampage: Sensex surges 446 pts, Nifty ends above 8900
Bulls retained control over Dalal Street on first day of the truncated week as equity benchmarks posted biggest one-day gains in last two months with the Sensex climbing 481 points intraday despite mixed global cues. Hopes of more inflow of foreign money on likely delay in Fed rate hike after weaker-than-expected US jobs data lifted the market sentiment. After a long weekend, the market continued its last week’s rally.
The 30-share BSE Sensex hit an intraday high of 29,013.40, before ending 445.91 points or 1.56 percent higher at 28,978.02, the highest closing level since April 13, 2015.
The 50-share NSE Nifty surged 133.35 points or 1.51 percent to end at highest closing level of 8,943 since March 2015. It touched day’s high of 8,950.85, driven largely by banks and auto stocks.
Experts expect the FII inflow to continue in medium term as the Fed rate hike is unlikely by end of 2016. FIIs pumped in nearly Rs 56,000 crore in Indian equities since March.
The liquidity-driven global markets are pricey at current levels, but the uptick is expected to continue for a while longer, believes Andrew Holland of Ambit Investment Advisors.
According to him, the Nifty can try testing previous highs of 9,100 as fundamentals in India are still looking good, which is not the case globally.
Shyamsunder Bhat of Exide Life Insurance doesn’t sense any near-term negative triggers that may affect the markets. If any correction takes place then that is expected to be shortlived, he says.The BSE Midcap index outperformed benchmarks, rising 1.84 percent but the Smallcap underperformed, up 0.95 percent. About 1616 shares advanced against 1132 advancing shares on the exchange.
Meanwhile, Urjit Patel has assumed charge as the 24th Governor of Reserve Bank on September 5, succeeding Raghuram Rajan whose three-year tenure ended yesterday.
It was the best day for Nifty Bank in last 6 months. The index surged 543 points or 2.73 percent to end at 20-month closing high of 20,426.20.
Axis Bank (up 6 percent) and ICICI Bank (up 4 percent) were among the top three biggest gainers on Sensex. SBI was up 2 percent as CLSA retained buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 300, saying extension of chairperson’s term and merger of associate banks key.
Tata Motors shares hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 593.10 intraday, surged 7.2 percent at close after brokerage houses retained bullish stance, citing strong auto sales growth in 2HFY17 on new models. With retaining overweight rating on the stock, Morgan Stanley says with key Land Rover launches planned for Q4FY17 and FY18 mix should improve. Nifty Auto jumped 3 percent.
Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, NTPC and GAIL gained 2-3 percent. Infosys was up 1.4 percent but TCS fell over a percent on appreciation in rupee that hit four-month high.
European stocks were choppy as Brent crude slipped towards USD 47 a barrel, at the time of writing this article. Asia ended mixed with the China’s Shanghai and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rising 0.6 percent each.
