After making gains for two straight weeks, however, indices Sensex and Nifty ended the week 1% lower.

India’s stock markets rose sharply in the afternoon after falling as much as 2% on Friday ending the day with gains as global cues turned positive. The benchmark Sensex rose as much as 242.52 points or 0.72% to close at 33,780.89. The broader Nifty50 rose by 70.9 points or 0.72% to close at 9,972.9. After making gains for two straight weeks, however, indices Sensex and Nifty ended the week 1% lower. The total buying by FPI stands at $2.7 billion in June so far. FPIs have turned into buyers after three straight months of selling.

Jinesh Gopani, head of equity at Axis AMC, said he was cautiously optimistic in his strategy. “Indian markets have been underperforming the US and other emerging markets this year. Currently, markets are flow-driven and also too volatile. Investors should take advantage of this volatile market and invest cautiously with a long-term perspective.We are cautiously optimistic in our strategy. We aim to allot 60% to cautious sectors and 40% to cyclicals. One should look at the market at a long-term perspective with quality names in their portfolio, that will help them to create wealth in the long run,” he said.

Stock markets in Asia started the day lower extending the losses of the US markets, which had witnessed their steepest decline since March in the previous trading session on rising Covid-19 cases and speculation of its second wave. The bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan were down between 0.04% and 0.9%. South Korea’s Kospi declined by 2.04% during the day’s trading session.

Indian markets, too, had a gap down opening in line with their Asian peers but witnessed a turnaround after the European markets opened positively. The stock markets in Germany, United Kingdom and France were up between 0.89% and 1.79% at the time of press. Dow Jones Mini futures, too, were up by 512 points. This is because the markets were trying to recover from the brutal sell-off that they witnessed in the previous trading session.

Ambareesh Baliga, an independent market expert, said, “The liquidity-driven rally is still intact which was seen from the market recovery on Friday which was because of the global markets. So, this is not the end of the rally and the fall on Friday morning seems to be an aberration. Even a telecom stock like Vodafone Idea which was badly beaten on Thursday and Friday morning recovered to close with a handsome gain.’’

According to a report by Kotak Institutional Equities, the increasing positive sample rate for Covid-19 still continues to be a concern. “The increase in positive sample rate, which we highlighted in the May 27 KIE Covid-19 Tracker, continues. While the positive sample rate is very high and increasing in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi, it is also on the rise in the rest of India,” said Kotak Institutional Equities in a report.

Data from NSE shows that the futures and options segment witnessed volumes worth Rs 11.29 lakh crore, similarly the cash market saw volumes worth `60,810.3 crore. This is against the six-month average of Rs 13.9 lakh crore and Rs 43,047.1 crore.

The biggest gainers on Nifty were Mahindra and Mahindra, Bharti Infratel, Shree Cement, Bajaj Finance and Hero Motocorp, which were up by 7.57%, 6.45%, 5.82%, 4.6% and 3.9%, respectively.

On the other hand, the biggest losers were Zee Entertainment, ONGC, Tech Mahindra, Powergrid Corporation and Wipro, down by 4.46%, 3.39%, 3%, 2.92% and 2.25%, respectively. Among the broader indices, Nifty Midcap was up by 1.28% and Nifty smallcap was down by 0.11%. Sectorally, the biggest gainers were Nifty Auto, Nifty Realty, Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Financial Service and Nifty Bank.