The Indian stock market closed in the green on Thursday, but the newly-launched closing auction session (CAS) continued to create divergence in benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty.
Sensex jumped nearly 374 points to end at 78,955 on its expiry day, while Nifty 50 ended almost flat, gaining only 11 points to close at 24,636 on Thursday. Nifty Midcap 100 slipped into the red, falling more than 0.4%, while Nifty Smallcap 100 index closed around 0.5% higher.
Reliance Industries (RIL) and State Bank of India (SBI) shares gained more than 3% each to lead gains on Sensex, while Power Grid shares dropped around 4% to lead losses on the benchmark index.
Among the sectors, Nifty PSU Bank index rallied over 2% while Nifty Auto and Nifty Realty fell more than 1% each. The overall market breadth slightly favoured the bears, with NSE seeing 1,668 advances against 1,672 declines, while 138 stocks remained unchanged.
US-Iran peace hopes
US President Donald Trump said talks with Iran seemed "to be working out quite well". "I hear they are doing very well," Trump said during an interview. "I am not looking to kill people and totally obliterate everything, and that's where we were headed. And they wanted to negotiate and we're doing that, and it seems to be working out quite well," he added.
Although the war in the Middle East has entered its sixth month and the two sides have so far failed to reach a permanent end to the conflict, Trump has repeatedly attempted to portray the talks positively.
What lies ahead?
RBI’s August monetary policy, which came on expected lines, didn’t influence the market trend, said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments. He noted that the brief message from the policy is that rate hike is some time away, and therefore, interest elastic sectors are unlikely to be influenced by interest rates in the near-term. “However, there are interest elastic sectors like financials and autos which are doing well due to other fundamental factors. The Q1 results of financials, particularly NBFCs and automobiles signal sustained growth driven by buoyant demand conditions,” he added.
Strong sectors like pharmaceuticals and telecom have reported good results with indications of better times ahead, Vijayakumar noted, adding that although FIIs have been buyers recently, it is yet to become a strong sustainable trend. FIIs may continue to invest in small amounts, but big sustained FII inflows are unlikely since U.S. bond yields continue to remain high and may rise further, according to the analyst.
Technical view on Nifty
Nifty’s supports have been largely intact so far, despite consolidation and weakness, said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Investments. He added that this improves the odds of a strong push higher.
“While 24,775 is still the level to breach, a direct rise above 24,650 may be an early entry into a potential breakout move. This may be played with downside marker pushed higher to 24,550 for the day,” the analyst said.
(With inputs from agencies)
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
