mumbai, may 17
Equity benchmark Sensex surged over 300 points in early trade on Monday, tracking gains in index majors HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and Infosys.The 30-share BSE index was trading 300.45 points or 0.62 per cent higher at 49,033.Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rose 75.60 points or 0.52 per cent to 14,753.40.
SBI was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, advancing over 2 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, ONGC, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, HDFC and Infosys.On the other hand, L&T, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Titan and Dr Reddy’s were among the laggards.In the previous session, Sensex ended 41.75 points or 0.09 per cent higher at 48,732.55, while Nifty slipped 18.70 points or 0.13 per cent to 14,677.80.Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,607.85 crore on Friday, as per provisional exchange data.According to V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, there are two macro numbers that will exert a big influence on the markets – externally, US inflation numbers; and internally, India’s COVID data. “The jury is still out on the US inflation with the Fed claiming that the spike in inflation in April is transitory and many economists and market experts believing that inflation will continue to rise to force the Fed to taper earlier than expected. We will have to wait to see how the inflation scenario plays out.”The other number, India’s COVID data, indicates steady improvement with fresh cases steadily declining and the latest number at 2.81 lakh is indeed very positive. And, the recovery numbers at 3.78 lakh indicate a steady decline in total caseload. This means the present increasing lockdowns will be a temporary phase which is likely to be ignored by the market,” he said.Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals, while Tokyo and Seoul were in the red.Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.19 per cent higher at USD 68.84 per barrel.Equity benchmark Sensex zoomed over 848 points on Monday, driven by strong buying in banking shares amid a reduction in daily domestic COVID-19 caseload.The 30-share BSE index ended 848.18 points or 1.74 per cent higher at 49,580.73, and the broader NSE Nifty soared 245.35 points or 1.67 per cent to 14,923.15.
IndusInd Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 7 per cent, followed by SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC twins, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv and UltraTech Cement.On the other hand, L&T, Bharti Airtel, Nestle India, Sun Pharma and PowerGrid were among the laggards.According to Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities, domestic equities witnessed strong rebound as robust Q4 FY21 earnings and early sign of decline in second wave of daily caseload bolstered investors’ confidence.
“A consistent reduction in COVID-19 daily caseload, which fell below 3 lakh on Sunday, certainly augurs well for markets. It indicates that prediction of receding second wave of COVID-19 by the end of May or mid of June holds true and adverse impact of second wave should not be felt beyond Q1 FY22,” he said.
