Sensex, Nifty greet New Year with a firm start

NEW DELHI: Domestic stocks kicked off the new year on a firm note despite rising Covid-related restrictions following a three-fold jump in weekly cases. A slight rise in crude oil prices and lack of directional cues from peer stock markets capped upside for the key indices.

Analysts believe that even though Omicron is spreading fast, the market doesn't expect any restriction on economic activity that will impact growth and earnings.

"IT's outperformance is likely to continue in 2022 too. Private Bank's underperformance is likely to be reversed in 2022 with improving credit demand, declining NPAs and rising margins. Investors should prepare for modest returns in 2022 with outperformance expected from financials, IT, telecom and construction-related segments," said Dr V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Multiplex stocks fell on the closure of cinema halls in select places on Covid curbs. Auto stocks were trading firm post-December sales data.

At 10:50 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 547 points or 0.94 per cent higher at 58,800.53. The NSE Nifty was at 17,509, up 154 points or 0.9 per cent up. Financial markets in Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and Thailand are closed on Monday for public holidays.

"One can wait for a sustainable close beyond 17,400, which is the higher end of the ‘Downward Sloping Channel’ on the daily time frame chart. The way individual stocks are behaving, it is likely to happen on Monday only. After this, the immediate levels to watch out for would be around 17,550-17,700. On the flip side, the base is shifting higher towards 17,000-16,800 before which 17,150 could be considered as key support," said Sameet Chavan of Angel One.

Maruti Suzuki rose 1.5 per cent to Rs 7,540. The automaker reported a 4.41 per cent decline in its December 2021 sales on a YoY basis. Total sales including exports in December 2021 fell to 153,149 units from 160,226 units sold during the same period of the previous corresponding year.

Wipro, L&T, Asian Paints and Tech Mahindra advanced over 1 per cent each. NTPC, TCS, Power Grid, HCL Tech and Infosys added up to 1 per cent.

On the flip side, IndusInd Bank declined 0.58 per cent to Rs 882.40. Dr Reddy's Labs, Titan Company, Hindustan Unilever and UltraTech Cement were the only other stocks in the red, falling up to 0.4 per cent.

Shares of PVR fell 2.7 per cent to Rs 1,263 while that of Inox Leisure declined 1.88 per cent to Rs 346.70.

Tata Motors climbed 2.82 per cent to Rs 495.95. The company has announced the hiving off and transfer of Tata Group auto arm's entire passenger vehicle undertaking to Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd have come into effect from Saturday, the homegrown auto major said.

Meanwhile, Brent crude added 67 cents, or 0.86 per cent, to $78.45 a barrel, as of 0102 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 77 cents, or 1.02 per cent, to $75.98 a barrel.