Taking Stock: Rally on seventh day push Nifty above 17,700; Sensex rises 311 points

The Indian equity market ended higher for the seventh consecutive session on April 11, amid buying across the sectors barring information technology.

At close, the Sensex was up 311.21 points or 0.52 percent at 60,157.72, and the Nifty was up 98.30 points or 0.56 percent at 17,722.30.

On the back of positive Asian cues, the Indian indices started on a firm note and extended the gains as the day progressed, helping Sensex and Nifty to close above 60,000 and 17,700, respectively.

"The domestic equity indices showed resilience and remained in positive territory, primarily led by banking and auto stocks on the expectation of strong quarterly earnings following robust business updates," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

“The forthcoming CPI inflation data due on Wednesday is expected to remain below the RBI’s upper tolerance level of 6 percent. Meanwhile, in the United States, inflation is projected to decline further from its current level of 6 percent. The US inflation figures, along with the FOMC meeting minutes, are likely to exert a dominant influence on the global market trend,” he added.

Stocks and Sectors

Kotak Mahindra Bank, JSW Steel, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto and Tata Steel were among the major gainers on the Nifty, while losers were HCL Technologies, TCS, Infosys, Asian Paints and Wipro.

Among sectors, auto, bank, metal, oil & gas, power indices rose 1 percent each, while the IT index was down nearly 1 percent.

The BSE midcap index was up 0.4 percent and smallcap index gained 0.6 percent.

Bajaj Auto, Cigniti Technologies, Lincoln Pharmaceuticals, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Sonata Software, L&T, ITC, Cyient, Mold-Tek Technologies and Kirloskar Industries, were among the stocks that touched their 52-week high on the BSE.

A long build-up was seen in Kotak Mahindra Bank, Navin Fluorine International and JSW Steel, while a short build-up was seen in Multi Commodity Exchange of India, Berger Paints and ABB India.

Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 300 percent was seen in Kotak Mahindra Bank, Navin Fluorine International and Container Corporation of India.

Outlook for April 12

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities

Nifty remained volatile throughout the session as the traders awaited CPI data, which is scheduled for April 12. The index has been sustaining above the critical moving average. Besides, the Nifty has so far remained above the crucial support level of 17,500.

The market will remain a buy on dips as long as the index remains above 17,500. Immediate support is visible at 17,640. On the higher end, the rally may extend towards 17,850/17,970.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities

Strong Asian and European market cues bolstered the ongoing bullish sentiment and lifted the Sensex above the crucial 60,000 mark. Although the rally seems to be stretched, the feel-good factors like the interest rate status quo by the RBI, robust GST collections and mixed economic growth numbers are giving investors the ammo to bet on domestic stocks. While IT stocks tumbled ahead of earnings announcements by frontline companies this week, metals and banking stocks led the broad market rally.

Technically, on intraday time frames the market is holding higher high and higher low formation and after a sharp pullback rally, it is comfortably trading above the 50-day SMA (Simple Moving Average) which is largely positive.

For the trend-following traders, 17,650 would act as a key support level and above the same, the Nifty could move up to 17,800-17,835. On the flip side, below 17,650 a quick intraday correction is likely, which could pull down the index up to 17,550-17,500.

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