Market started off the week on a positive note with benchmark indices closing over 1 per cent higher on Monday.

After opening muted amid mixed global cues, the indices edged higher during the day, led by IT and financials. A

The BSE Sensex closed at 56,486.02, up 935.72 points or 1.68 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 56,545.83 and a low of 55,556.47. The Nifty 50 closed at 16,871.30, up 240.85 points or 1.45 per cent, near the day’s high of 16,887.95. It recorded an intraday low of 16,606.50.

Over 1700 stocks decline

The market breadth remained neutral with 1,749 stocks advancing on the BSE as against 1,725 that declined while 138 remained unchanged. Furthermore, 14 stocks hit the upper circuit as compared to the 6 stocks that were locked in the lower circuit. Besides, 123 stocks touched a 52-week high level and 30 touched a 52-week low.

Infosys, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while IOC, ONGC, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors and HDFC Life were the top losers.

Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart Ltd said, “Indian equity market kicked off the week with a strong note where Nifty manages to close above its 20-DMA after 02nd February. Indian equity markets outperformed most of the global peers in today’s trading session.”

“The rally can be attributed to some positive news flows on the Russia-Ukraine issue, cool off in crude oil prices, the expectation of only a 25 basis points rate hike by the US Fed, lack of selling by FIIs, and buying by DIIs. The news flows related to the Russia-Ukraine issue will continue to cause volatility while we will react to our inflation numbers tomorrow,” Meena added. 

According to Suman Chowdhury, Chief Analytical Officer, Acuité Ratings & Research, the WPI has increased in February with a “materially higher sequential expansion of 1.4 per cent as compared to a slight sequential contraction seen in the previous month. Clearly, the data reinforces the presence of inflationary pressures in the manufacturing and the services sector.”

According to Chowdhury, the upward momentum in the commodity prices is set to continue in March amid rising crude oil prices.

“Amidst increasing pressures on the profit margins of manufacturing companies and a pickup in consumption demand, Acuité expects a further pass through of input costs. We expect persistent supply side bottlenecks and high commodity prices to hold the core inflation at double digit levels in the near term,” Chowdhury said.

Investors are keeping a close eye on the outcome of the Fed meet expected on Wednesday. 

Rahul Sharma - Equity 99 said, “Markets today were driven majorly by Election results across various states. Today, post markets, Russia-Ukraine are to held talks which will have major effect on markets tomorrow. Also Bank Nifty will be in focus tomorrow as Feb month Deposit growth and Bank loan growth data will be declared.”

IT, financials in focus

On the sectoral front, metals, realty, pharma and oil & gas dragged while IT, financials, auto and consumer durables gained.

Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services closed over 2 per cent higher each. Nifty Private Bank, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty IT were each up nearly 2 per cent. Nifty Consumer Durables closed over 1 per cent higher while Nifty Auto was up nearly 1 per cent.

Meanwhile Nifty Realty was down nearly 2 per cent. Nifty Metal was down 0.47 per cent, while Nifty Oil & Gas was down 0.53 per cent. Nifty Pharma was down 0.35 per cent.

Broader indices

Broader indices closed in the green.

Nifty Midcap 50 was up 0.36 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 was up 0.08 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was up 0.02 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was up 0.31.

The volatility index rose 1.31 per cent to 25.68.

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