Positive global cues spilt into the domestic market, lifting the benchmark indices higher on January 23.
The Sensex and the Nifty50 snapped their two-day losing run, tracking positive global cues as reports emerged that the US Federal Reserve may slow interest-rate increases for the second straight time on January 31-February 1 meeting.
As per a Wall Street Journal report, "Federal Reserve officials are preparing to slow interest-rate increases for the second straight meeting and debate how much higher to raise them after gaining more confidence inflation will ease further this year."
Sensex opened 254 points higher at 60,876.01 and overall rose 492 points to an intraday high of 61,113.27. The index closed at 60,941.67, up 320 points, or 0.53 percent. The Nifty50 ended at 18,118.55, up 91 points, or 0.50 percent.
The BSE Midcap index rose 0.44 percent but the Smallcap index fell 0.30 percent.
As many as 141 stocks, including Swan Energy, Engineers India, Adani Total Gas, IDFC, Lloyds Metals & Energy and Lloyds Steels Industries, hit their 52-week highs in intraday trade on BSE.
Crude oil prices increased as investors hope for better demand after China reopens. Brent Crude traded near $88 per barrel. The rupee fell 27 paise to close at 81.39 per dollar.
Top Sensex gainers: Shares of Hindustan Unilever, Sun Pharma, Tech Mahindra, TCS and Infosys ended as the top gainers.
Top Sensex losers: Shares of UltraTech Cement, NTPC, Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro ended as the top losers in the Sensex kitty of stocks.
Sectoral picture
The Nifty IT index rose almost 2 percent with all stocks in the green. Shares of Coforge jumped 6 percent while those of Persistent Systems rose more than 5 percent.
Nifty Pharma, FMCG, Auto and Bank rose almost a percent each.
Nifty Realty (down 0.63 percent) and Metal (down 0.40 percent) bucked the trend and ended in the red.
Experts' views on markets
Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail) at Kotak Securities observed the markets maintained an upward momentum through the trading session on positive cues from Asian and European indices.
"IT stocks emerged as the star performers after getting hammered in recent sessions on worries global IT spending may moderate this year due to likely slowdown in key economies. If the optimism continues, we may see some pre-budget rally in the truncated week," said Chouhan.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said the market breadth tilted in favour of bulls lifted by financial stocks, amid positive cues from global peers.
"Strong corporate earnings reported by banks boosted appetite for financial stocks. Positive global markets owing to the possibility of a less aggressive rate hike, further added colour," said Nair.
Technical view
Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas pointed out that the Nifty traded in a range-bound manner on January 23, however, the overall structure shows that the index is preparing to start the next leg on the upside.
"On the daily chart, Nifty has started forming a higher top higher bottom and once the swing high of 18,184 is crossed then one can initiate a fresh long position. The daily upper Bollinger band is set for an expansion, which will create room for the price action on the higher side. In the short term, the Nifty is expected to surpass the key hurdle zone of 18,260-18,300 and head towards 18,500. On the other hand, the level of 18,000 will provide a cushion on the downside," said Ratnaparkhi.
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.
