Scripting a survival
Zee’s founding family plots a twist in the tale and stays in control
Bulls took hold of the market on Wednesday as benchmark indices closed at record highs for the second consecutive session.
Market opened on a positive note amid weak global cues and extended the rally through the day with benchmark indices recording new all-time highs. The rally was led largely by auto stocks, primarily Tata Motors. Buying in metals and recovery in IT stocks also helped sustain gains.
The BSE Sensex closed at a record 60,737.05, up 452.74 points or 0.75 per cent, after hitting an all-time high of 60,836.63 during the day. The Sensex recorded an intraday low of 60,452.29. The Nifty 50, which recorded a new all-time high of 18,197.80, closed at a record high of 18,161.75, up 169.80 points or 0.94 per cent. It hit an intraday low of 18,050.75.
Breadth remains positive
The market breadth remained positive with 1,760 stocks advancing on the BSE, 1,578 declining and 138 remaining unchanged. Furthermore, 399 stocks hit the upper circuit as compared to the 247 stocks that were locked in the lower circuit. Besides, 392 stocks touched a 52-week high and 23 touched a 52-week low.
The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies reached a record ₹2,70,73,296.03 crore at closing.
Tata group in focus
Dr VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, “The hallmark of today’s record-breaking moves by the Sensex and Nifty is the surge in Tata stocks led by Tata Motors and strongly supported by Tata Consumer, Tata Chemicals and Tata Power. A surge in a heavyweight like Tata Motors by more than 20 per cent in a day is extremely rare. But this surge is backed by positive news of massive investment of ₹7,500 crore by TPG. Another important feature is the good performance of HDFC Bank, which is showing signs of coming back as a market leader.”
S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities, said, “Auto stocks, led by Tata Motors, propelled the Nifty to new highs of 18,200 with good support from infra and metal stocks on the launch of the Master Plan for Infrastructure Development and Multi-Modal Connectivity. As the street awaits earnings today from big IT names, Tata Group stocks hogged the limelight despite profit-taking in late-afternoon trade.”
Tata Motors, M&M, Tata Consumer, ITC and Powergrid were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while Maruti, ONGC, SBI Life, Coal India and Hindustan Unilever were the top laggards.
The shares of Tata Motors rallied 21.11 per cent at closing on the NSE after recording a fresh year-high of ₹523.85 during the day.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said, “The mood of the global market is muted by inflation fears and high bond yields ahead of the release of US inflation data. However, the Indian market is robust due to the festival season. Best performers are auto, metal and power sectors in expectation of high demand.”
Realty under pressure
On the sectoral front, all indices except Nifty Realty closed in the green.
Auto, metals and IT indices recorded the highest gains.
Nifty Auto was up 3.43 per cent at closing. Nifty Metal and Nifty IT were up 1.46 per cent and 1.19 per cent, respectively.
Nifty Realty was down 0.24 per cent.
Broader indices
As for broader indices, Nifty Midcap 50 was up 1.40 per cent at closing while Nifty Smallcap 50 was down 0.24 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was up 1.56 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was up 0.59 per cent.
The volatility index jumped 1.59 per cent at closing, to end at 16.10