Sensex, Nifty march higher for sixth consecutive day; IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank lift indices today

FPIs bought equities worth US$631 mn over the past five trading sessions while DIIs sold US$353 mn worth of equities in the same period.

Domestic benchmark indices ended the week’s last trading session with gains to make it six days without slipping into the red on a closing basis. S&P BSE Sensex gained 353 points or 0.90% while the 50-stock Nifty managed to end at 11,655 levels. Financials surged with all banking stocks on Sensex ending the day with gains. The US Federal Reserve’s decision to keep interest rates low for a longer period, kept stock markets in the green. In the week, Sensex and Nifty gained over 2% each taking them to levels last seen in February this year.

Top gainers: IndusInd Bank jumped 10% during the day before witnessing some profit booking on closing to see it end 8% higher. Axis Bank and ICICI Bank were the other top gainers. On BSE Midcap, Canara Bank and Federal Bank were the top performers. Force Motors, City Union Bank, PVR were the top stocks on the BSE Smallcap index. 

Top Drags: Powergrid, Infosys, and NTPC slipped over 1% each on the BSE Sensex. On the BSE Midcap index, SJVN, KIOCL Ltd, and Honeywell Automation were the top drags. Among smallcap stocks, Usha Martin tanked over 7%, followed by Balaji Amines.

Banking stocks gain: All S&P BSE Bankex constituents ended with gains on Friday. Nifty Private Bank index was up 4.7%, Nifty Bank gained 4.19%, and Nifty PSU Bank was up 5.17%. City Union Bank was the top gainer, surging 8.47%.

Global cues: Japanese stocks gave up gains to fall into the red as Shinzo Abe, the longest serving Prime Minister of Japan announced stepping down due to health issues. The Shanghai Composite was up in the green and so was Hang Seng. Stock markets in South Korea gained during the day’s trade. 

Week in review:  Sensex and Nifty gained over 2% each during the week. “Strong FII flow led by high global liquidity and decline in USD fueled the markets. IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India and Axis Bank were among the top gainers while Bharti Airtel, ONGC and UltraTech Cement were among the major losers in the BSE-30 Index,” said Sanjeev Zarbade, VP PCG Research, Kotak Securities. FPIs bought equities worth $631 million over the past five trading sessions while DIIs sold $353 million worth of equities in the same period.

Technical take: “We went very close to the 11700 levels but it acted like a psychological price point and the market retraced from there. Traders might want to take a fresh call on the markets next week with the new series in mind. We could see levels closer to 11750 which would be the next point of resistance. We will also get a new support range for the market – for the week and for the month so next week would be a good barometer to ascertain the direction of the market,” said Manish Hathiramani, Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments.