Informist, Thursday, Dec 28, 2023
By Anjana Therese Antony
MUMBAI – Continuing its northward journey for the sixth consecutive session, the Indian equity market hit new lifetime highs, with most sectors closing in the green. Today's gains were led by shares of fast-moving consumer goods, oil and gas, and automobile companies.
"The rotational buying in heavyweights across sectors is helping the index (Nifty 50) to inch higher, and we expect the same trend to continue," Ajit Mishra, senior vice-president of technical research at Religare Broking, said in a post-market note.
Both the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex hit fresh intra-day record highs of 21801.45 points and 72484.34 points, respectively, and also ended at lifetime closing highs. The Nifty 50 ended 123.95 points, or 0.6%, higher at 21778.70 points and Sensex ended up 371.95 points, or 0.5%, at 72410.38 points.
Support for the Nifty 50 is pegged at 21650-21600 points and resistance at 21850-21900. Some analysts said that traders should buy in case the market falls.
"We believe that though some of the participants have flagged that the market is in an overbought zone and the valuations seem to be high, with the stability in the domestic economy and all macro indicators showing positive signs, the valuation factor is being avoided," Avdhut Bagkar, technical and derivatives analyst at StoxBox said.
The broader market outperformed benchmark indices today. The Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap indices closed 0.5-1.1% higher.
Auto stocks such as Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, and Mahindra & Mahindra closed 1.8-2.8% higher. A rise in auto stocks contributed 0.1% gains to the Nifty 50.
The Nifty Auto index hit an all-time high of 18446.55 points and closed 1% higher, with most constituents ending in the green. An auto analyst at a domestic broking firm said that the current year has been quite decent for the sector with higher single-digit growth across segments, along with an increase in margins due to muted commodity prices.
"Valuations of the automobiles and component companies are well above their pre-pandemic levels," Kotak Institutional Equities said in a research report. However, volume growth has been fairly muted across segments for the past few years, it added.
Oil and gas stocks, too, rose. Shares of oil marketing companies such as Bharat Petroleum Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, and Indian Oil Corp gained amid falling crude oil prices. Crude oil prices saw another decline due to the deployment of a multinational task force in the Red Sea and resumption of shipping traffic, said Rahul Kalantri, vice-president of commodities at Mehta Equities, in a note today. The Nifty Oil & Gas index hit its all-time high of 9625.55 points and closed 2% higher, with most of its constituents in the green.
Most stocks in the FMCG pack also inched higher, contributing 0.1% gains to the 50-stock index. The Nifty FMCG index also hit an all-time high of 56580.70 points and closed 1.4% higher. Some analysts tracking FMCG stocks said that rural demand is gradually improving, which could support companies in the sector to perform well in the coming quarters.
Further, investors are bullish on banks and financial stocks, with India's current account deficit data giving rise to optimism, said an analyst with Nirmal Bang. The country's current account deficit shrunk to $8.3 bln in Jul-Sep from $30.9 bln in the same quarter last year.
Coming to specific stocks, Coal India hit an over eight-year high of 382.50 rupees and was the top gainer on the Nifty 50. "The stock is on an upmove as demand for coal remains robust," said Astha Jain, senior research analyst at Hem Securities. "It is expected to perform better in the coming trading sessions." In the near term, Jain said, the stock is expected to find resistance at 415-420 rupees. Brokerage Motilal Oswal Financial Services said it expects robust volume growth and strong demand to drive the company's performance. The broking house also believes the company is well-placed to capitalise on growth opportunities.
Shares of Housing & Urban Development Corp reached an all-time high of 136.80 rupees after the company said it signed a memorandum-of-understanding with the government of Gujarat for investment of up to 145 bln rupees.
With respect to new listings, shares of Azad Engineering closed 29% higher at 677.50 rupees on the National Stock Exchange compared to the issue price of 524 rupees. The stock debuted at 720 rupees.
The Indian market is likely to hit fresh record highs and close the last trading session of the year on a positive note.
* Of the Nifty 50 stocks, 37 rose, 12 fell, and 1 was unchanged
* Of the Sensex stocks, 23 rose and 7 fell
* On the BSE, 1,993 stocks rose, 1,815 fell, and 106 were unchanged
* Nifty Oil & Gas: Up 2.01%; Nifty Auto: Up 1.01%; Nifty IT: Down 0.14%
BSE NSE
Sensex: 72410.38, up 371.95 pts, or 0.52% Nifty 50: 21778.70, up 123.95 pts, or 0.57%
S&P BSE Sensitive Index Nifty 50
Lifetime High: 72484.34 (Dec 28, 2023) : Lifetime High: 21801.45 (Dec 28, 2023)
Record Close High: 72410.38 (Dec 28, 2023) : Record Close High: 21778.70 (Dec 28, 2023)
2023 1st day close: 61167.79 (Jan 2) : 2023 1st day close: 18197.45 (Jan 2)
2023 Closing High: 72410.38 (Dec 28) : 2023 Closing High: 21778.70 (Dec 28)
2023 Closing Low: 59288.35 (Feb 27) : 2023 Closing Low: 17311.80 (Oct 17)
2023 High (intraday): 72484.34 (Dec 28) : 2023 High (intraday): 21801.45 (Dec 28)
2023 Low (intraday): 58699.20 (Jan 30) : 2023 Low (intraday): 17098.55 (Jan 17)
2022 1st day close: 59183.22 (Jan 3) : 2022 1st day close: 17625.70 (Jan 3)
2022 Closing High: 63284.19 (Dec 1) : 2022 Closing High: 18812.50 (Dec 1)
2022 Closing Low: 51360.42 (Jun 17) : 2022 Closing Low: 15293.50 (Jun 17)
2022 High (intraday): 63583.07 (Dec 1) : 2022 High (intraday): 18887.60 (Dec 1)
2022 Low (intraday): 50921.22 (Jun 17) : 2022 Low (intraday): 15183.40 (Jun 17)
2021 Closing High: 61305.95 (Oct 14) : 2021 Closing High: 18338.55 (Oct 14)
2021 Closing Low: 46285.77 (Jan 29) : 2021 Closing Low: 13634.60 (Jan 29)
2021 High (intraday): 61353.25 (Oct 14) : 2021 High (intraday): 18350.75 (Oct 14)
2021 Low (intraday): 46160.46 (Jan 29) : 2021 Low (intraday): 13596.75 (Jan 29)-
2020 Closing High: 47751.33 (Dec 31) : 2020 Closing High: 13981.95 (Dec 30)
2020 Closing Low: 25981.24 (Mar 23) : 2020 Closing Low: 7610.25 (Mar 23)
2020 High (intraday): 47896.97 (Dec 31) : 2020 High (intraday): 14024.85 (Dec 31)
2020 Low (intraday): 25638.90 (Mar 24) : 2020 Low (intraday): 7511.10 (Mar 24)
2019 High (intraday): 41809.96 (Dec 20) : 2019 High (intraday): 12293.90 (Dec 20)
2019 Low (intraday): 35287.16 (Feb 19) : 2019 Low (intraday): 10583.65 (Jan 29)
2018 High (intraday): 38938.91(Aug 28)) : 2018 High(intraday): 11760.20 (Aug 28)
2018 Low (intraday): 32483.8 (Mar 23) : 2018 Low (intraday): 9951.9 (Mar 23)
2017 High (intraday): 34005.37 (Dec 26) : 2017 High(intraday): 10515.10 (Dec 26)
End
With input from Team Informist
Edited by Aditya Sakorkar
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