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The benchmark indices closed marginally higher amid volatility on Thursday.
The market opened on a positive note amid positive global cues. It turned volatile post-opening, oscillating between losses and gains. The indices managed to close marginally higher, led by oil & gas and FMCG stocks.
The BSE Sensex closed at 58,807.13, up 157.45 points or 0.27 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 58,889.96 and a low of 58,340.85. The Nifty 50 closed at 17,516.85, up 47.10 points or 0.27 per cent, near the day’s high of 17,543.25. It recorded an intraday low of 17,379.60.
Breadth remains positive
The market breadth remained positive with 2,111 stocks advancing on the BSE as against 1,165 that declined, while 122 remained unchanged. Furthermore, 440 stocks hit the upper circuit as compared to the 140 stocks that were locked in the lower circuit. Besides, 232 stocks hit a 52-week high and 18 touched a 52-week low.
Investor sentiments were also supported by RBI’s ‘accommodative’ stance as the central bank’s monetary policy committee kept key rates unchanged amid the emergence and spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, "Domestic indices surrendered to profit-booking in the early session, but later gained ground owing to positive global sentiments.”
“Investors are keenly awaiting US inflation data in order to gauge the Fed’s decision on rolling back economic stimulus. Easing fears over the Omicron variant continue to temper optimism in the markets,” added Nair.
ITC, L&T, Asian Paints, UPL and Britannia were the top gainers on the NIfty 50, while HDFC Bank, Titan, Nestle India, SBI Life and NTPC were the top losers.
Mitul Shah, Head Of Research at Reliance Securities said, “The domestic market traded marginally up amid volatility, while the broader market outperformed the main indices. The monetary policy turned out to be dovish as expected and came with no surprises.”
“The central bank kept its stance, policy rate and corridor unchanged and did little to provide any forward guidance on the path of future policy rate increases. This is in contrast to other global central banks that are turning towards tightening monetary policy. In our view, India is at the beginning of a capex revival phase and, therefore, corporate earnings recovery looks sustainable and premium valuations might sustain,” added Shah.
FMCG, oil & gas in focus
On the sectoral front, while FMCG, oil & gas, metal and auto gained, bank, realty, healthcare, and consumer durables dragged.
Nifty FMCG was up 1.44 per cent, while Nifty Oil & Gas was up 1.04 per cent at closing. Nifty Auto was up 0.46 per cent, while Nifty Metal was up 0.62 per cent.
Meanwhile, Nifty Bank and Nifty Private Bank closed 0.54 per cent and 0.40 per cent lower, respectively. Nifty Realty and the Nifty Healthcare Index were down 0.28 per cent and 0.21 per cent, respectively. Nifty Consumer Durables was down 0.39 per cent.
Broader indices
Broader indices managed to retain gains, outperforming the benchmarks.
The Nifty Midcap 50 was up 0.44 per cent, while the Nifty Smallcap 50 was up 1.02 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was up 0.38 per cent, while the S&P BSE Smallcap was up 0.80 per cent.
The volatility index softened 3.83 per cent to 16.60.
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