India’s stock benchmarks snapped a five-day losing streak, aided by gains in auto, banking, power, telecom and realty stocks. Focus shifts to Fed’s meeting Wednesday, when economists expect it to signal plans to start hiking interest rates in March to curb the rise in inflation. The markets will be closed on Wednesday on account of Republic Day.
The S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.64% to 57,858.15. The 30-stock gauge rose over 1,500 points from day’s low as markets recovered in the second half of the session. The Nifty 50 index advanced by similar magnitude to 17,277.95. The measure slipped to an intraday low of 16,836.80 before staging a recovery, mainly on the back of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. and Axis Bank Ltd., which rose on the back of better-than-expected earnings in the quarter-ended December.
The move was the biggest since rising 0.9% on Jan. 12 and follows the previous session’s decrease of 2.7%. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. had the largest increase, rising 6.8%. Today, 36 of 50 shares rose, while 14 fell.
The broader indices outperformed their larger peers with S&P BSE MidCap rising over 1% and S&P BSE SmallCap gaining 0.81%. Barring S&P BSE Information Technology and Consumer Durables, all the other 17 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced with S&P BSE Auto, Bankex, Telecom, Utilities and Power adding over 2%.
The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 1,979 stocks advanced, 1,366 declined and 89 remained unchanged.
“Markets took a breather and gained over half a percent, tracking firm recovery in the US markets and upbeat earnings. Initially, the benchmark remained volatile however healthy buying in select index majors from banking, auto and telecom space helped the index to gradually inch higher as the day progressed”, Ajit Mishra summarised the day’s market action in a note. He added “Markets will react to the Fed meeting outcome in early trade on Thursday and we expect volatility to remain high, thanks to the scheduled monthly expiry. Keeping in mind the scenario, we reiterate our cautious view and suggest preferring hedged positions”.
