Stock Market Highlights: Market ends at day highs! Nifty near 22,200, while Sensex above 73,100; Realty and Auto stocks shine

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Paytm, has stepped down from the board of Paytm Payments Bank, leading to a reconstitution of the board. Following this development, the shares of One 97 Communications witnessed a 5% increase, reaching Rs 449.50 during intra-day trade on Tuesday.

“There are indications of exhaustion in the market rally, particularly in the broader market. Higher valuations are constraining the bulls and there are no major positive triggers in the near-term that can sustain the rally beyond a point. Expectations of backloading of the rate cuts from the Fed and the consensus lowering of the number of rate cuts this year also are likely to restrain the rally in the mother market – US. This will have repercussions in the Indian market too.

Kotak small cap joining Tata and Nippon small-cap funds in putting restrictions on investment in their small cap fund is another red flag regarding the excessive valuations of the small cap segment. Investors should take cues from this and partially move money to the safety of large caps,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Shares of Tata Consultancy Services rose 1.9% to Rs 4,078. The stock was the top gainer in the Nifty 50. The stock touched its 52-week -high on February 09 at Rs 4,184.75.

The Indian Rupee appreciated against the Dollar on Monday aided by likely inflows.

However, dollar demand from state-run banks, possibly on behalf of importer clients, curbed further gains in the local unit. The Rupee finally settled at 82.8900 against the U.S. dollar, compared to its previous close of 82.9375, said Sriram Iyer, Senior Research Analyst at Reliance Securities.

Most Asian peers were weaker and capped gains, while U.S. bond yields and the Dollar Index eased this Monday afternoon trade and aided sentiments.

Amongst other spot pairs, the EURINR and the GBPINR rose while the JPYINR eased in Monday’s session.

Meanwhile, the RBI has eased restrictions on banks’ arbitrage trades between the outright foreign exchange OTC and the NDF markets, Reuters reported earlier in the day. From an intraday perspective, the Indian Rupee could open stronger against the Dollar this Tuesday morning, tracking an overnight fall of the greenback.

Data will be a key driver this week with a key inflation gauge from the U.S. and GDP numbers back home.

Analyzing the technical aspects of Bank Nifty, Kunal Shah, a Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities, observed a struggle between bulls and bears, leading to a session marked by volatility. Despite the fluctuations, the general sentiment remains bullish, dependent on the index maintaining support levels in the range of 46500-46400 during closing. The immediate upside resistance is identified at 46800, and a confirmed breakthrough at this level is expected to drive the index towards 47000, a key point with substantial open interest on the call side.

UltraTech Cement, TCS, Eicher Motors, Grasim, and SBI Life Insurance were the top gainers on the NSE Nifty 50, while the laggards includes ONGC, Axis Bank, BPCL, Power Grid, and Bharti Airtel.

The NSE Nifty 50 opened 0.14% lower at 22,090.20, while the BSE Sensex opened 0.09% lower at 72,723.53.

Shares of Asian Paints fell 4.6% to Rs 2,847.80 in the pre-open session after Grasim Industries forayed into the paint business with the brand name Birla Opus. The stock was the key loser in the Nifty 50. The paint company hit its 52-week-low of Rs 2,708.65 on April 03.

Spot gold closed with a gain of 0.57% at $2036 Friday. The metal was up nearly 1% on the week.

Friday’s gains in gold came mainly on month-end rebalancing of the US treasuries as investors focused on next week’s supply and demand dynamics. Index change occurs at the last trading day of the month.  Long-dated treasuries are likely to benefit as debt issued during the month are included in bond Index, while debt with a maturity of less than a year drops out.

As far as the bank Nifty is concerned, it has been range-bound between 46400 – 47400. The range-bound action is likely to continue in the absence of a decisive move in the key heavyweights of the index, said Jatin Gedia, technical research analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

Commenting on the technical outlook Jatin Gedia, a technical research analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, said that the Nifty opened on a weak note and drifted lower on Monday. It closed in the red down – 90 points. 

“On the daily charts, we can observe that the Nifty has been in consolidation mode for since last four trading sessions. it is broadly trading in the range 21800 – 22300. The consolidation can continue until it decisively breaks out of the range. The Bollinger bands on the hourly time frame chart is contracting indicating that there could be further range-bound action going ahead. The daily and hourly momentum indicators provide divergent signals which can lead to a range-bound move over the next few trading sessions. The hourly moving averages placed in the range 22130 – 22100 shall act as immediate crucial support while 22275 – 22300 shall act as an immediate hurdle zone from a short-term perspective,” said Gedia.

Aditya Birla Fashion, Balrampur Chini Mills, Canara Bank, SAIL, and Zee Entertainment Enterprise were on the ban list on February 27.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares net worth Rs 285.15 crore. While, domestic institutional investors (DII) sold shares net worth Rs 5.33 crore on February 26, 2024, according to the provisional data available on the NSE.

WTI crude prices are trading at $77.71 up by 0.13%, while Brent crude prices are trading at $82.64 down by 0.14%, on Tuesday morning.

The US Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the dollar’s value against a basket of six foreign currencies, traded lower, 0.03% at 103.80.

The equity indices in the US closed in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 62.30 points, or 0.16% to 39,069.23. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite declined 0.13% to 15,976.25. While the S&P 500 fell 0.38% to settle at 5,069.53.