Sensex ends above 49,200 points, Nifty around 14,480

Benchmark indices, which remained positive throughout the day, closed on a resilient note on Monday, thanks to strong gains in IT and Auto.

The BSE Sensex closed at 49,269.32, up 486.81 points or 1 per cent. The Sensex, which opened at 49,252.31 as against the previous close of 48,782.51, reached an all-time high of 49,303.79 points during the day.

Over 480 shares hit the upper circuit on the BSE and nearly 500 securities reached their 52-week high.

The NSE Nifty closed at 14,484.75, up 137.50 points or 0.96 per cent. It opened at 14,474.05 as against the previous close of 14,347.25. The intraday high was at 14,498.20.

"Healthy buying was observed in blue-chip stocks like Infosys, HCL Tech and HDFC. During the afternoon session the sentiments continued to remain upbeat as India’s exports grew 16.22% YoY to $6.21 billion in the first week of January, mainly driven by healthy growth in pharmaceuticals, and engineering sectors, reflecting signs of revival,” said Narendra Solanki, Head- Equity Research (Fundamental), Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Brokers.

Sectoral gains

IT and suto stocks led the rally, followed by FMCG and pharma stocks. Meanwhile, metal and banking remained the laggards.

Among sectoral indices, Nifty IT was up 3.31 per cent at closing while the S&P BSE IT Index was up 3.63 per cent. Nifty Auto stocks were up by 2.61 per cent.

The Nifty Metal index was down 1 per cent, while the S&P BSE Metal Index was down 1.15 per cent.

Apart from this, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were also down marginally, by 0.08 per cent and 0.17 per cent respectively.

According to Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities, “Domestic equities remained in the grip of bulls with benchmark indices registering fresh highs as robust earnings performance by TCS and D-mart bolstered investors’ confidence. Volatility index witnessed sharp increase indicating some amount of uneasiness about the markets. “

Continued improvement in Covid-19 recovery rates and the announcement of vaccination process from January offer comfort to markets, he said and added further, expectations of sharp recovery in corporate earnings led by sustained rebound in key economic data may propel market to witness fresh highs in the near term.

HCL Tech, Infosys, HDFC, Bajaj Auto and Maruti were among the top gainers on the BSE while PowerGrid, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, NTPC and State Bank of India were the top laggards.

Tata Motors, HCL Tech, Infosys, HDFC and Wipro gained on the Nifty, while losers were Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries and L&T.

“As markets are already trading at all-time highs with rich valuations and a number of stocks are already trading ahead of their fundamentals, investors must play cautiously and invest on quality companies with strong track records and solid fundamentals,” according to Modi.