Market gains for 5th day in row as RBI pauses; Bajaj twins, Tata Motors top gainers

Sensex closed at 59,832.97 up by 143.66 points or 0.24%. The benchmark neared its psychological mark earlier in the day after touching an intraday high of 59,950.06.

Nifty 50 rose by 42.10 points or 0.24% to end at 17,599.15. The benchmark did touch the day’s high of 17,638.70.

Top gainers on Sensex were — Bajaj Finance soaring by nearly 3% followed by Tata Motors up by 2.6% and Bajaj Finserv gaining by 1.9%. Other stocks such as IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, and M&M advanced between 1% to 2%.

Top underperformers on Sensex were — HCL Tech shedding over 1.7% followed by ICICI Bank and Axis Bank tumbled by over 1% each. Stocks like Tech Mahindra, Titan, HUL, and Wipro were also in red.

In the broader market, both Midcap and Smallcap indexes surged by around 172 points and 194 points respectively on BSE. Broadly, the tone of the market was bullish with midcaps and small-caps outperforming.

In terms of sectoral indices, on BSE, Auto stocks outperformed by gaining nearly 267 points, while capital goods and healthcare indices climbed by 252 points and 167 points. Oil & Gas index also jumped by 133 points. On the other hand, IT, metals, and consumer durables witnessed selling.

Talking about the markets performance, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, “The surprising policy move to pause interest rate hikes has had a convincing effect on bond yields and the stock market. A plausible peaking of the interest rate will have an positive effect on the financial markets, which was reflected in today’s drop in yield and marginal upside of domestic stock market when the Asian market was negative.”

At the interbank forex market, the Indian rupee surged slightly against the US dollar post the RBI’s repo rate pause. This would be rupee’s third weekly advancing in a row. The local unit ended at 81.8850 per dollar, compared with its previous print of 82 per dollar.

This week markets had a holiday-shortened trading sessions. Markets were open on April 3rd, 5th and 6th. Tradings will be closed on April 7th due to Good Friday. While holiday was there on April 4th due to Mahavir Jayanti.

In 5 days, Sensex has gained over 2,014 points or 3.5%. While Nifty 50 zoomed more than 599 points or 3.5%.

Going ahead, in Nair’s view, “the trend to continue during the year will depend on a consistent fall in inflation, which is forecasted to stay elevated above the FY24 target. Given the high gap between current and target inflation, the RBI will have to hold the rates high for a long period, limiting the upside.”

While Ajit Mishra, VP – Technical Research, Religare Broking said, “the stability on the global front has eased some pressure and now the focus would shift to earnings for cues. We expect some consolidation in Nifty citing multiple hurdles around the 17,600-17,700 zone. However, the rotational buying across index majors would help in maintaining the positive tone. Meanwhile, participants should continue with a stock-specific approach with a focus on overnight risk management.”

Technically, Amol Athawale, Deputy Vice President – Technical Analyst, Kotak Securities, said, “after a long time, the nifty reclaimed the level of the 200-day SMA and has formed a bullish candle on daily and weekly charts. We are of the view that 17500 and 17375 would act as key support areas for the index while 17700 -17800 could act as resistance zone. Meanwhile, the Bank Nifty has also formed a bullish candle on weekly charts and is successfully trading above the 50-day SMA. For the index, 40700 or the 50-day SMA could be the sacrosanct support zone and above which it could move up till 41500-41700.”

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