Sensex settles at lifetime high; Nifty ekes out marginal gains
Bankex climbed 0.47%, industrials advanced 0.37%, and capital goods 0.36%
MUMBAI: Equity benchmark indices ended the trade in the positive territory on Wednesday, with the BSE Sensex closing at a lifetime high of 61,980.72, helped by buying in banking counters.
After facing highs and lows during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex finally ended 107.73 points or 0.17% higher at 61,980.72. During the day, the index hit its 52-week high of 62,052.57, higher by 179.58 points.
The broader NSE Nifty ended marginally higher by 6.25 points or 0.03% to 18,409.65.
Among Sensex stocks, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Dr Reddy’s, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC and Tata Consultancy Services were among the major winners. Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, NTPC, Bajaj Finserv, UltraTech Cement and IndusInd Bank were among the major laggards.
Markets in Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled lower, while Tokyo ended higher.
Equity exchanges in Europe were trading mostly lower in the afternoon session.
Wall Street had ended in the positive territory on Tuesday.
International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.28% higher at $94.12 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth ₹221.32 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.
“As the domestic market has started to trade around the alltime high levels, it is trending indecisively following the recent geopolitical tensions and weak performance by global counterparts. Although domestic macroeconomic indicators and FII inflows are favourable, given the high valuations, domestic markets can behave cautious in the short to medium-term,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge declined 0.66% and smallcap index dipped 0.34%.
Among sectoral indices, bankex climbed 0.47%, industrials advanced 0.37%, capital goods 0.36%, tech 0.30%, and IT 0.20%.
However, metal declined 1.49%, utilities fell 1.40%, power 1.27 per cent, services 1.02%, and commodities 1.08%.
“Markets moved in a narrow range with bouts of sideways movement in intra-day trades, but selective buying in late trades helped key indices to end in positive territory. The lacklustre trend was visible across the Asian and European markets, which prompted local traders to trade cautiously,” said Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research (retail), Kotak Securities Ltd.
“After last week’s spectacular rally, investors are in no hurry to lap up stocks despite some tailwinds in the domestic economy,” Chouhan said.
Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated by 34 paise to close at 81.25 (provisional) against the US dollar on Wednesday on disappointing trade data and foreign fund outflows.
Forex traders said a negative bias on risk aversion in global markets weighed on the local unit.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 81.41 and later witnessed an intraday high of 81.23 and a low of 81.58 during the session.
On Tuesday, the rupee appreciated 37 paise to close at 80.91 against the US dollar.
“The rupee depreciated on risk aversion in global markets and weak Asian currencies. Disappointing macroeconomic data from FII outflows also weighed on Rupee,” said Anuj Choudhary, research analyst at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.
On the domestic macroeconomic front, India’s exports entered negative territory after about two years, declining sharply by 16.65% to $29.78 billion in October. The trade deficit widened to $26.91 billion, according to data released by the commerce ministry on Tuesday.
“We expect the rupee to trade with a negative bias on risk aversion in global markets and dollar demand from importers. However, a weak dollar and decline in crude oil prices may prevent a sharp fall in rupee,” Choudhary said.
Geopolitical tensions eased somewhat after investigations revealed that the missile that hit Poland was fired from Ukraine and not Russia.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.28% to 106.10.