Indian Equity benchmark indices were seen holding steady gains in Wednesday’s intra-day trade amid mixed cues from global peers. The SandP BSE Sensex opened 222 points higher at 72,692, and was seen quoting with a gain of 175-odd points around 72,650 levels. The NSE Nifty 50 was up 64 points at 22,069.
Reliance was the top mover among the Sensex 30 pack, up 1 per cent. It was followed by Maruti, Bajaj Finance, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, and Larsen and Toubro. On the other hand, Wpro, Nestle India, and HDFC Bank were marginally in red. The broader indices were seen holding notable gains in early deals. The BSE MidCap index advanced 0.5 per cent, while the SmallCap added 0.7 per cent.
Among individual stocks, Sanofi India gained 4 per cent, while Cipla was up 1 per cent after the two firms entered into an exclusive partnership to boost access to Sanofi’s Central Nervous System (CNS) medications across India.
Market View
Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, shares his insights:
The market is likely to continue in the consolidation mode for a couple of days more and then take a new directional trend starting April. The undertone of the market continues to be bullish supported by strong economic fundamentals. A significant structural trend in the market is the sustained flows into equity mutual funds which are gathering momentum. This will ensure resilience of the market with dips getting bought. Midcaps have again become the segment of activity, particularly by retail investors. This is because there is no institutional selling pressure in midcaps unlike in largecaps where institutions including FIIs have large holdings. Financials are likely to lead the rally along with capital goods and automobiles in early April. Credit growth in the economy is impressive at around 20% and this will help boost banks’ profitability. Q4 results of banks will be good.
Global Cues
US stocks slipped on Tuesday, giving up modest gains late in the session to send the Dow and S&P 500 to their third straight decline, as investors awaited economic data in a holiday-shortened week to gauge the Federal Reserve’s policy path.