On Monday, the Sensex and Nifty, two key stock indices, closed higher due to significant buying in Reliance Industries, a major index constituent, and a continuous inflow of foreign funds. However, the market rally was tempered by a correction in IT stocks in anticipation of their upcoming quarterly earnings announcements later this week.
Recovering from the decline experienced on Friday, the 30-share BSE Sensex settled at 65,344.17, gaining 63.72 points or 0.10 percent. Throughout the day, it reached a high of 65,633.49, climbing 353.04 points or 0.54 percent. The NSE Nifty ended at 19,355.90, advancing by 24.10 points or 0.12 percent.
Among the Sensex constituents, Reliance Industries registered the highest jump of 3.78 percent. Other major gainers included Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank, and Tata Motors.
On the other hand, Titan, HCL Technologies, Power Grid, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank, and Nestle were among the significant decliners.
According to exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their buying spree, acquiring equities worth ₹790.40 crore on Friday.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, commented, “Indian equities faced broad-based weakness, but the benchmark managed to stay marginally positive with the support of strong buying in heavyweight stocks. The weakness was led by IT stocks, as the sector is set to kick off the Q1 result season with expectations of soft earnings. Additionally, cues from the US markets are unfavourable, as concerns about another rate hike persist despite expectations of a fast cooling of future US CPI inflation data.”
In the Asian markets, Shanghai and Hong Kong closed in the green, while Seoul and Tokyo ended lower. European equity markets were trading positively, while the US markets concluded with losses on Friday.
The global oil benchmark, Brent crude, experienced a dip of 0.80 percent, settling at USD 77.84 per barrel.
On Friday, the BSE benchmark declined by 505.19 points or 0.77 percent to reach 65,280.45. Similarly, the Nifty fell by 165.50 points or 0.85 percent, ending at 19,331.80.
