Sensex up over 700 pts at closing, Nifty above 17,600 

The Indian equity market started off the new financial year on a positive note with benchmark indices closing over 1 per cent higher on Friday.

The market opened on a dull note, tracking weak global cues. Indices soon erased early losses and edged up higher during closing hours, witnessing broad-based buying. 

The BSE Sensex closed at 59,276.69, up 708.18 points or 1.21 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 59,396.62 and a low of 58,450.04. The Nifty50 closed at 17,670.45, up 205.70 points or 1.18 per cent. It had surpassed the 17,700-mark intraday with a day’s high of 17,703.70. It recorded an intraday low of 17,422.70.

Breadth turns positive

The market breadth turned positive with 2,721 stocks advancing on the BSE against 674 that declined while 106 remained unchanged. Furthermore, 19 stocks hit the upper circuit compared to the two stocks that were locked in the lower circuit. Besides, 133 stocks touched a 52-week high level and 21 touched a 52-week low.

The volatility index fell 10.33 per cent to 18.44.

NTPC, BPCl, Powergrid, IndusInd Bank and HDFC were the top gainers on the Nifty50 while the Hero Motocorp, Tech Mahindra, Divi’s Lab, SBI Life and Dr Reddy were the top losers.

A fall in crude prices and buoyant GST collections aided market sentiments, as per analysts. 

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of March 2022 was at an all time high of ₹1.42 lakh crore.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, “The stock market kicked off FY23 on a positive note. It started the day muted and in-line with global markets but strengthen as the day progressed as the broad market picked up and buying increased in sectors like Banks, Power & Realty.”

“Cabinet approval for mega power policy, drop in crude and improvement in global futures ignited the rally. Russia-Ukraine war, movement of crude and RBI monetary policy meetings would be the major factors that will dictate the near trend,” said Nair. 

S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP securities said, “Buoyant GST collections for March lifted sentiments with the Nifty PSE and the PSU Bank Indices registering smart gains on the first day of the new financial year with several stocks in sectors like Hospitality to Paper being sought after on many states doing away with all Covid related curbs. Positive Tailwinds buoyed several state-run firms in Gujarat to yearly highs and today’s trade saw keen interest in the constituents of the Nifty Energy Index.”

Moving forward, commodity price movements, inflation concerns and central bank policy decisions along with dvelopments regaridng the Russia-Ukraine crisis are few key factors expected to weigh on the domestic and global market sentiments, as per analysts. 

Nishit Master, Portfolio Manager, Axis Securities said, “We expect FY23 to witness continued volatility in equity markets, especially in the first half of the year with rising interest rates globally and high inflation, which is expected to persist. In this scenario, we expect money to move from long-duration debt funds to equity funds in the second half, which should bode well for equities.”

Pharma, healthcare under pressure

On the sectoral front, all indices except Nifty Pharma and Nifty Healthcare Index closed in the green. Banks, realty and oil & gas gained focus.

Nifty Pharma and Nifty Healthcare Index were down 0.03 per cent and 0.16 per cent, respectively. 

Meanwhile, Nifty PSU Bank closed nearly 4 per cent higher. Nifty Bank, Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Oil & Gas and Nifty Realty each closed over 2 per cent higher. Nifty Financial Services was up nearly 2 per cent.

Broader indices outperform

Broader indices continued to outperform the benchmarks, closing  in the green. 

The Nifty Midcap 50 was up 1.53 per cent while the Nifty Smallcap 50 was up 1.93 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was up 1.39 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was up 1.71 per cent. 

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