The stock market kicked off the week on a high note, with both Sensex and Nifty posting string gains on Monday. The Sensex jumped over 800 points during intraday trade to cross 79,350, while the Nifty surged past the 24,100 mark, rising more than 260 points.
Moreover, Indian equity indices opened Monday’s trading session on a higher note as big banks reported strong Q4 results. The NSE Nifty 50 opened 99 points, or 0.41%, higher at 23,950, while the BSE Sensex rose 373 points, or 0.47%, to open at 78,926.
The Nifty 50 reclaimed the 24,000 mark by touching 24,004.20, but retreated from it to trade above 23,950.
The top gainers in the Nifty 50 were Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, and HCL Technologies as soon as markets opened. After analysing the list of IT stocks, most of them were trading in the green. The sectoral index Nifty IT was up 1.33%.
Bank Nifty opened 566 points or 1.04% higher at 54,855, an all-time high. Here is a list of bank stocks to keep an eye on.
However, Adani Ports and SEZ, HDFC Life, Eternal (Zomato), Asian Paints, and Maruti Suzuki were the major losers in the Nifty 50.
The futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones were in red, down 0.72% at 38,862. The US markets closed Friday on a mixed note, with the S&P 500 ending 0.13% higher, but the Dow Jones fell almost 530 points.
The other Asian indices were also trading mixed on Monday as market sentiments were again shaken by trade tensions between the US and China. However, the Chinese index Shanghai Composite rose after the People’s Bank of China kept the Loan Prime Rates (LPR or key lending rates) unchanged to support the Yuan.
The GIFT Nifty indicated that the equity markets might open on a subdued note. Also, the Foreign Institutional investors have started putting money back in the Indian equity cash segment. The FIIs were the net buyers of Rs 4,667.94 crore on April 17.
“On the weekly chart, a bullish candle has been formed, and the market is maintaining an uptrend continuation formation on both daily and weekly charts by closing above the level of 23,800. We believe the short-term market texture is bullish; however, we may see range-bound activity in the near future due to overbought conditions. For traders, the levels of 23,500 would act as key support zones, while resistance zones for the bulls can be found between 24,000 and 24,200,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research at Kotak Securities.