Mumbai: India’s barometer index — the S&P BSE Sensex — crossed the 50,000 mark Thursday on the back of positive global cues and expectations of healthy quarterly results, along with that of a growth supportive Union Budget FY22. It, however, closed lower than the psychlogically important milestone due to profit booking.
The Sensex closed at 49,624.76, lower by 167.36 points, or 0.34 per cent, from its previous close of 49,792.12 after opening at the historically high level.
It had opened at 50,162.05 and touched a fresh all-time high of 50,184.01 points.
Similarly, the Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) touched a new record high of 14,753.55 points. It ended the day’s trade at 14,590.35, lower by 54.35 points, or 0.37 per cent, from its previous close.
Earlier in the day, Sensex crossed the 50,000 mark.
Coming a day after Joe Biden’s inauguration as US President, the BSE Sensex mirrored its Asian counterparts in having a gap-up opening.
In fact, the positivity sentiment led it to open above the 50,000-mark.
The gains of the last 5,000 points in Sensex has come in just 32 trading sessions.
Moreover, expectations of an even faster economic recovery on the back of the vaccination programme have been cited as other factors for the up-move.
Besides, easy liquidity conditions across the global have been funnelling into India’s market, as FIIs shore up their stakes and pump-up this rally.
Globally, Asian markets experienced a post-inauguration day jump on Thursday due to optimism over the new US President’s plan to push his $1.9 trillion pandemic economic rescue plan through the Congress.
On the other hand, European markets traded flat.
On the domestic side, the news of a major fire breaking out in the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), the Indian manufacturer of Covid-19 vaccine Covishiled, led to fear in the market.
Investors were spooked that the fire incident may disrupt the nation-wide vaccination drive and may endanger economic recovery, resulting in sharp fall.
Among sectors, Nifty PSU Bank, realty, metal, media, pharma, and banks fell the most.
“Nifty has shown signs of profit taking after such a rise,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.
“Technically it has formed a ‘Dark Cloud Cover’ on daily charts, showing possibility of follow on selling. The steepness of selling in the afternoon suggests that the Nifty could keep running into resistance or profit taking over the next few sessions.”
Siddhartha Khemka, Head – Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said: “Going ahead, market momentum could continue for few days on the back of positive global cues and good earning season so far.”
“However, run-up to the Budget expectations could add some volatility to the market. As the long term trend of the market is positive, we would advise investors to keep accumulating quality stocks on any dips.”
Rahul Sharma, Head – Technical & Derivatives Research, JM Financial Services, said: “We believe this is more of a mental milestone but an important one. Since booking the profit is better than looking the profit, we advise to take some profits around Nifty 14,800 or 15,000 levels and keep portfolio’s hedged with Nifty ‘Put Options of February Expiry’.”
“As a budget strategy for traders, its best to buy the expectation and sell the realisation. Maintain trailing stop loss of 14,440 for positional longs in Nifty.”
IANS