The domestic equity market witnessed strong buying interest across sectors on March 1, helping the benchmarks the Sensex and the Nifty snap their eight-day losing streak.
The risk appetite of investors improved after India's Q3FY23 GDP prints came below expected which fuelled hopes that the RBI may think of taking a pause on rate hikes or changing its monetary stance in the coming policy meet.
On February 28, government data showed India's Q3FY23 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) moderated to 4.4 percent against 11.2 percent in the same quarter of the previous year and 6.3 percent in the July-September quarter of FY23.
The National Statistical Office, however, retained its 2022-23 GDP estimate at 7 percent.
Meanwhile, India's manufacturing sector witnessed a slow growth in February.
As Mint reported, India's manufacturing sector expanded at the slowest pace in four months in February. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was at 55.3 in February, little changed from 55.4 in January and signalling a strong improvement in the health of the sector.
Global cues also supported the domestic market. Major European and Asian markets were green after data showed strong manufacturing activity in China in February.
"China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) stood at 52.6 last month against 50.1 in January and was well ahead of an analyst forecast for 50.5, giving investors hope that China's recovery can offset a global slowdown," reported Reuters.
Supported by positive global cues, Sensex clocked a gain of 449 points, or 0.76 percent, to end at 59,411.08. Nifty50 settled with a gain of 147 points, or 0.85 percent, at 17,450.90.
Mid and smallcaps rose over a percent higher each, outperforming the benchmarks. The BSE Midcap index rose 1.35 percent while the Smallcap index rose 1.38 percent.
The overall market capitalisation of firms listed on the BSE jumped to ₹261 lakh crore from ₹257.7 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors richer by ₹3.3 lakh crore in a single session.
Crude oil prices traded volatile, swinging between the hope of strong demand from China and concerns over rate hikes by the US Fed. Brent Crude traded near the $83 per barrel mark.
The rupee jumped 16 paise to close at 82.51 per dollar, Bloomberg data showed.
Top Nifty gainers: Shares of Adani Enterprises, Hindalco and UPL ended as the top gainers in the Nifty index.
Top Nifty losers: Shares of Britannia Industries, Power Grid and Cipla ended as the top laggards in the Nifty pack.
As many as 45 stocks ended with gains and 5 were in the red in the Nifty index.
Sectoral indices
All sectoral indices ended with gains. With a gain of 3.96 percent, Nifty Metal emerged as the top gainer among the sectoral indices, followed by Nifty PSU Bank which rose 2.98 percent.
Nifty Media index rose almost 2 percent while Nifty IT, Bank, Private Bank, Realty and Oil & Gas rose over a percent each.
Experts' views on markets
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services pointed out that the Indian market was oversold and needed encouraging domestic triggers to show signs of revival.
“The manufacturing PMI reported was better than predicted at 55.3, even though India's Q3 FY23 GDP statistics came in slightly below expectations at 4.4 percent. Solid global markets, bolstered by strong Chinese manufacturing data, also ignited optimism in the domestic market,” said Nair.
Technical views on markets
Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail) at Kotak Securities pointed out that the recovery was expected as the market had witnessed relentless selling over the past week or so due to weak global cues and slowdown concerns.
"A promising reversal formation and the strong bullish candle is indicating further uptrend in the near future. For the traders, 17,350 would act as a sacrosanct support zone and above the same, the positive momentum is likely to continue till 17,525-17,600. On the other hand, the 17,350 uptrends would be vulnerable," said Chouhan.
Rahul Ghose, Founder & CEO of Hedged, an algorithm-powered advisory platform, observed that for the last few days, the Nifty 17,500 PE of the March monthly expiry had been seeing constant shorting.
"These short sellers did not square off their positions even when the Nifty fell to 17,300 levels, signalling strong bias on the long side. Today's bounce did not see any significant unwinding by these 17,500 PE short sellers, which further signals bullishness on the Nifty index," said Ghose.
Ghose underscored that the Nifty index is still in a broad sideways range between 17,250 on the downside and 18,080 to 18,280 on the upside which is also the congestion zone for the Index.
"From tomorrow's expiry prospective, traders should look for a range of 17,400 on the downside and 17,600 on the upside barring any new news flow. Open interest is also indicating that traders are going into tomorrow’s weekly expiry with a bullish 17,500 short straddle position as well," said Ghose
Key market data
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of individual analysts. These do not represent the views of MintGenie.
