Sensex, Nifty end the week with gains; power sector, financials push Dalal Street upwards

For the second day straight, power sector stocks were seen surging on the bourses. NTPC and Powergrid gained over 4% each.

Sensex and Nifty returned to winning ways on Friday as they gained half a percent each to end with gains, following stronger global cues. S&P BSE Sensex was up 214 points while the Nifty 50 index managed to end just below the 11,380 mark.Power sector stocks were again seen surging on the bourses. Volatility tanked to six-month lows, falling over 4% during the day’s trade. All Nifty Sectoral indices, except Nifty IT, Nifty Metal and Nifty Media. 17 of the 30 Sensex constituents ended with gains on Friday.

Top gainers: NTPC and Asian Paints were the top gainers on BSE Sensex. Among BSE Midcap constituents, Varroc Engineering, IDBI, GMR Infra were the top gainers, surging over 9% each. BASF India, Butterfly Appliances were the top gainers among smallcaps surging 20% each.

Top drags: ONGC and Bharti Airtel were the worst performers among Sensex constituents, falling over 1% each. On BSE Midcap Jindal Steel and Future Retail fell over 4%. Ashoka Buildcon and Future Consumer were down 5% on BSE 500.

Midcaps, smallcaps outperform benchmarks: For the entire week midcap and small cap indices outperformed the benchmark indices. “Small caps & Midcaps did well this week and we saw a smart bout of profit booking today in this space which is heartening as it speaks about the maturity of the Retail Investor at a time when we keep hearing about this investing segment being victimised more often than not,” S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

Power stocks surge: For the second day straight, power sector stocks were seen surging on the bourses. NTPC and Powergrid gained over 4% each. BHEL, Adani Power, Thermax, KEC, were some of the other stocks that surged. S&P BSE Power index ended 2.83% higher. 

Outlook: “Indian markets are showing strong correlation with the global markets. The markets, globally, are currently running on hope and liquidity. The expectation of economic activity picking up and earning normalising will have to translate into reality or at least show signs of it, for the markets to sustain the current momentum. Until then investors are advised to remain cautious while trading and remain stock specific,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.