Equity indices closed at fresh record highs on Friday, amid positive trends from global equities. Extending gains for the sixth session, Sensex ended 70 points higher at 46,960 and Nifty gained 19 points to 13,760. In today's session, Sensex hit an all-time high of 47,026 and Nifty logged a lifetime high of 13,772.
Yesterday, Sensex ended 223 points higher at 46,890 and Nifty gained by 58 points to 13,740. During the week, Sensex and Nifty gained 1.87% and 1.83%, respectively.
Sensex crossed the 47K mark for the first time ever in opening trade, amid record inflows from foreign institutional investors, progress on COVID-19 vaccines globally and signs of a nascent economic recovery in the country.
S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities said,"Markets closed flat today after an initial wobble in morning trade across Small & Midcap names. FTSE rebalancing coupled with strong demand for IT stocks saw momentum return in late afternoon trade as select quality Midcaps gained ground."
ONGC, IndusInd Bank, HDFC twins, Bajaj Finance and Kotak Bank were among the top losers. On the other hand, Infosys, HCL Tech, TCS, Nestle India and Bajaj Auto were among the gainers.
Sectorally, except IT, pharma and FMCG, all the other sectors closed in bearish territory.
Asian markets were trading mixed on Friday as investors looked ahead to the Bank of Japan's rate decision and monetary policy statement expected later in the day. It is widely expected that BoJ will extend its funding programs.
In US, stocks closed at record levels on Thursday, as lawmakers signaled that they are nearing a stimulus deal to support businesses and individuals during the pandemic situation. Traders said investors were boosted by hopes of Washington coming through on additional fiscal aid before the end of 2020.
European markets opened higher taking cues from positive comments from the FOMC meeting that it will continue to support the US economy. Further, Britain and the European Union struck a pessimistic tone in trade talks, with a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying it was "very likely" there would be no agreement unless the bloc changed its position "substantially".
Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking said," Markets managed to settle almost unchanged in a volatile trading session. After the flat start, the benchmark inched lower due to normal profit-taking in the initial hour however gradual rebound in the select index majors helped the index to recoup all its losses by the end. The Nifty index managed to close flat at 13,761 levels. The broader markets indices, midcap and smallcap, also traded subdued and ended lower by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively. Interestingly, we're seeing buying emerging on every dip despite the overbought condition. However, we feel it's prudent to avoid naked leveraged positions now. In absence of any major domestic event, global cues will continue to dictate the market trend."
Expressing views on Nifty's technical outlook, Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities said,"One more volatile session witnessed as index opened with gap up and showed profit booking since start of the day. Index managed to closed day at 13761 with minimal gains of 20 points and formed a dragon fly doji kind of candle pattern on daily chart this candle formed when dip was used by buyers to push prices up. For next session 13650 will act as good support on the downside if managed to breach said level we may see some more dips and one the higher end good resistance is still placed at 13775 zone."
On the currency front, the Indian rupee, the local currency settled 3 paise higher at 73.56 per US dollar on Friday's opening trade as the weakness of the American currency and optimism surrounding the US stimulus aid package supported the domestic unit. Sustained foreign fund inflows also strengthened investor sentiment.
Commenting on Rupee's outlook, Sugandha Sachdeva VP-Metals, Energy & Currency Research, Religare Broking said," Value erosion in dollar, excessive liquidity is driving foreign investors to bet big on Indian equities, which give the rupee a slight appreciating bias in the near term. However, 73.20-73.00 remains a strong hurdle for the rupee, and with RBI standing in the way, bouts of large-scale appreciation can be ruled out. We reckon that the RBI will prefer to keep the rupee exchange rate stable between the 73 to 74.50 band for quite some time now."
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