Sensex at record close, Nifty ends above 9,800 for 1st time; RIL at new 9-year high
The record closing high trend for equity benchmarks continued for the third consecutive session on Wednesday, with the Nifty holding the 9,800 level for the first time. Investors looked ahead to corporate earnings (TCS & Infosys), and the data of June retail inflation & May industrial output due later today.
The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 57.73 points to 31,804.82 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 30.05 points at 9,816.10, backed by positive global cues, and stocks like Reliance Industries & ICICI Bank.
“Markets will react to the macroeconomic data in early trade Thursday and then focus would return to the TCS’s result,” Jayant Manglik, President, Retail Distribution, Religare Securities said.
He reiterated his bullish view on markets and suggested maintaining buy on dips approach. Also, be selective now and prefer hedged positions, he advises.
The market is likely to stay richer for longer, according to Abhay Laijawala of Deutsche Equities who is very bullish on India with long term perspective.
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The broader markets gained strength in later part of the session, with the BSE Midcap index up 1 percent and Smallcap up 0.6 percent on positive breadth. About 1,478 shares advanced against 1,204 declining shares on the exchange.
Bank Nifty gained strength in the last hour of trade after trading lower amid consolidation since morning. Mitessh Thakkar mitesshthakkar.com said if the Bank Nifty crossed 23,750 level decisively in weekly expiry on Thursday then it will start moving towards 24,000-mark which will also push the Nifty higher.
ICICI Bank was up 1 percent as media reports indicated that the bank and Fairfax will sell 20 percent stake in ICICI Lombard IPO. SBI gained 1.3 percent that helped the Nifty PSU Bank index to outperform other sectoral indices.
Reliance Industries was the leading contributor to Sensex’ gains, up 1 percent to end at fresh record closing high after new tariff plans. It shot up 40 percent, outperforming the Nifty (up nearly 20 percent) since the beginning of calendar year.
(Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.)
ONGC gained 1.6 percent and HPCL surged 5 percent as Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the merger deal would be completed in FY18.
Nifty IT was the only loser among sectoral indices, down 0.3 percent ahead of June quarter earnings from TCS (July 13) and Infosys (July 14). TCS down 1.3 percent and Infosys declined 0.2 percent after rising 6 percent and 4.5 percent in previous two consecutive sessions, respectively.
In broader space, Biocon gained 13.7 percent as investors turned bullish ahead of the regulator meeting to discuss its breast cancer drug filing.
AU Small Finance Bank continued to rally for the third consecutive session since the listing on Monday, up 11 percent today and surged 76 percent in three days.
European bourses were higher as investors digested corporate earnings and looked ahead to comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. France’s CAC, Germany’s DAX and Britain’s FTSE were up nearly 1 percent at the time of writing this article. However, Asian markets closed mostly lower, with Japan’s Nikkei down 0.5 percent.
