Frontline equity indices the Sensex and the Nifty ended higher on August 12 ahead of the release of key macroeconomic data such as the retail inflation print of July and industrial production data of June.
The gains were led by oil and gas and energy stocks such as ONGC, NTPC and Power Grid.
Global cues were also broadly positive. "World stocks headed for a fourth straight week of gains. A slight easing of inflation readings drove global stocks higher and capped a rising dollar this week, though a string of Fed speakers dampened expectations of the central bank going slow on further policy tightening," reported Reuters.
Sensex opened at 59,235.98 against the previous close of 59,332.60 and touched intraday high and low of 59,538.08 and 59,113.01, respectively. The index eventually closed 130 points, or 0.22%, higher at 59,462.78 with shares of NTPC, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Power Grid and Reliance Industries as the top gainers.
On the flip side, shares of Infosys, Maruti, Larsen & Toubro, Tech Mahindra and Sun Pharma ended as the top laggards.
Nifty closed 39 points, or 0.22%, higher at 17,698.15. BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices closed 0.15% and 0.39% higher, respectively.
Among the sectoral indices, BSE Oil & Gas rose 2.47%, followed by the energy index which rose 2.15%. Metal, utilities and power indices rose 1.77%, 1.60% and 1.52%, respectively.
Pharma and IT stocks failed to perform today as the BSE Healthcare index closed 1.02% lower while BSE Teck and IT indices fell 0.80% and 0.76% respectively.
"Return of FIIs and declining dollar index aided the market rally. While metals and oil & gas garnered buying interest, IT and pharma weighed on sentiments. Oil and gas stocks were in focus as the government diverted some natural gas from industries to city gas operators in an effort to moderate the prices of CNG and piped cooking gas," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Crude oil prices rose after recession fears eased. Brent Crude traded near the $100 a barrel mark. The rupee ended flat at 79.65 per dollar.
Technicals
On the weekly chart, the Nifty gained for the fourth consecutive week, suggesting an ongoing bullish trend.
"Despite the proximity to the trend line resistance, the trend remains strong. On the higher end, 17,750-17,800 is likely to remain strong. A decisive breakout above 17,800 may induce a further rally in the market. On the lower end, support is visible at 17,300," said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities.
Amol Athawale, Deputy Vice President - Technical Research, Kotak Securities pointed out that Nifty is consistently forming higher high and higher low formation which is broadly positive. In addition, on weekly charts, it has formed a bullish candle that also supports a further uptrend from the current levels.
"Momentum indicators like 'stochastic' and RSI indicate a strong possibility of some profit booking at higher levels. We believe that, due to the temporary overbought situation, we could see range-bound activity in the near future. on the higher side, the immediate hurdle would be 17,900-18,000/(60,000-60,300 on the BSE). On the downside, 17,400-17,300/(58,500-58,200 on BSE) could be the key supports level for the positional traders. For traders, buying on dips and sell on rallies could be the ideal strategy,” said Athawale.
Key market data
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