Nifty ends at new closing peak of 15,436; Sensex adds 308 pts; RIL soars 6%

Broader markets, however, settled the day in the red on the back of profit-booking. The BSE Midcap index fell 0.12 per cent and the BSE SmallCap index dropped 0.48 per cent

MARKET LIVE: Sensex up 300 pts, Nifty tops 15,400; India VIX cools off 12%

Stock market updates: Bulls ruled on Dalal Street on Friday, the first day of the June F&O series, as a trinity of steady decline in Covid-19 cases, announcement of unlocking in the national capital, and $6 trillion fiscal stimulus in the US held up investor confidence.

The benchmark Nifty index scaled a fresh record peak of 15,469.6 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) today, surpassing its previous record peak of 15,432 hit on February 16. The index traded higher for the sixth consecutive session as India recorded its lowest daily count of new Covid-19 cases in 44 days. The country, on Thursday, logged 186,364 fresh virus cases while death remained below 4,000-mark.

Add to it, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced earlier on Friday that the national capital will begin to unlock from Monday and said that construction activities and factories will be reopened from May 31.

Reading these developments as a first step towards a gradual uptick in economic activities, benchmark indices zoomed to day's high of 51,529 on the S&P BSE Sensex and record peak on the Nifty. By close, the Sensex index was quoting at 51,423 levels, up 308 points or 0.6 per cent while the Nifty50 was at 15,436-mark, up 98 points or 0.64 per cent.

Reliance Industries was the biggest contributor towards the indices' rally today after the stock clocked its sharpest intra-day gain in two months and zoomed 6.4 per cent. The stock, which settled 5.9 per cent higher on the BSE, looks firm on both, fundamental and technical, grounds. Analysts at Jefferies maintained their 'buy' rating on the counter with a target of Rs 2,580 per share. READ MORE

That apart, Grasim, Adani Ports, M&M, Eicher Motors, Coal India, HDFC, Kotak Bank, and IndusInd Bank remained the top gainers of the day, up between 1 per cent and 3 per cent. On the downside, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv, NTPC, PowerGrid, Shree Cement, and Nestle India were the top laggards, down up to 4.5 per cent.

Broader markets, however, settled the day in the red on the back of profit-booking. The BSE Midcap index fell 0.12 per cent and the BSE SmallCap index dropped 0.48 per cent.

In terms of sectoral partcipation, the Nifty PSU Bank index gained 0.7 per cent, followed by the Nifty Private Bank index, up 0.3 per cent. On the contrary, the Nifty Pharma index slipped 1.2 per cent on the NSE.

Global markets

European shares rose to a record high on Friday as UK-exposed financial stocks gained following a hawkish comment from a Bank of England official, with the prospects of increased US fiscal spending boosting market sentiment. That apart, European economic sentiment and consumer confidence data, which is due later in the day, is also expected to show an improvement in May.

Given this, the pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.5 per cent to a record high of 448.55 points and was set to add about 0.8 per cent this week. German stocks also added 0.4 per cent, as the country planned to offer adolescents Covid-19 vaccine shots from early-June.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei climbed 2 per cent, South Korea's Kospi gained 0.7 per cent, and Australia's S&P/ASX200 rallied 1.2 per cent.

5:10 PM

MARKET CLOSING COMMENT :: Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities

ndian benchmark equity indices ended higher on May 28 with Nifty starting June F&O series on strong note. In the process it formed an all time high and all time closing high. Nifty opened higher with an upgap and went zigzag through the day before closing below the intra day high. At close, the Nifty was up 97.80 points or 0.64% at 15435.70.

Volumes on the NSE were a little below recent averages. Among sectors, Oil & Gas rose the most with Reliance contributing the most, while Power & Healthcare fell the most. BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended marginally lower.

Nifty closed the week 1.72% higher for the second consecutive week. The upmove in this week has been gradual and the advance decline ratio turned negative on May 28 after 5 days. This suggests some much needed profit taking in the broader market has occurred. Nifty after closing at the all time high could consolidate the recent gains before inching up higher. US markets are shut on Monday and hence Indian markets will not have their performance to track over Monday and Tuesday. Nifty could over the next few days rise towards 15600 while 15300-15327 band could offer support.

4:51 PM

Why has Sensex failed to hit all-time-high?

The Nifty eventually touched a new high above 15431 level but the Sensex is still behind by 1,000 points at 51,400 and the main reason is the underperformance in HDFC and HDFC Bank. However, in the coming days we could see the rally in HDFC twins and in those stocks that have underperformed in the current upmove.

The Nifty has managed to break the 15430 level after 16 weeks of consolidation. This is the biggest and time consuming consolidation which will definitely give a good support to the market and we can see a further increase above 15000.

According to Weekly and Daily formation, the Nifty can stop once between 15,500 and 15,600 levels. The 15,250 and 15,100 are big pillars for the market and as long as the Nifty stays above 15,100, we can see the level of 16,000 to 16,200. The strategy should be to buy on dips. Bank-Nifty is also showing strength and we can see the level of 36500 in the coming weeks. Bank-Nifty's main support is 34400 and 34000.

Views by: Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities

4:39 PM

TECH VIEW :: Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities

Nifty on the weekly chart formed a long bull candle, after an upside breakout of the multi-month trend line resistance in the previous week around 15K mark. This pattern could be a validation of upside breakout on the weekly chart.

The short term trend of Nifty continues to be positive. Having moved above the resistance at 15430, one may expect further upside in the coming sessions. The next upside targets to be watched are around 15800 (pattern target of broader high-low range breakout at 15000-14200 levels) and this could be achieved in the next one week. Immediate support is now placed at 15350-15300 levels.

4:30 PM

MARKET OUTLOOK :: Trade set-up for next week

Nifty50 index crossed lifetime highs and closed the week on a positive note. However, this week’s upmove was slow and lacked strength. It is likely the benchmark index could face resistance at higher levels. The bulls are getting tired as the index is trading much higher than its mean levels. Hence, a brief corrective dip cannot be ruled out. 15,160 is the immediate support level for Nifty.

Expectations for the Week

Developments surrounding inflation continue to be on everyone’s watch. The opening up of our economy will have a hold over how the demand shapes up. The true picture of the damage by the second wave will only be visible in the June quarter results but until then management commentaries will continue to guide the Street. With no concrete triggers in place yet, markets continue to look for a strong reason to advance towards the unknown atleast in the near-term. Therefore, investors should seek selective bets, and wait for corrective moves before investing for long term.

Views by: Nirali Shah, Head of Equity Research at Samco Securities

4:16 PM

MARKET VIEW :: Momentum indicators suggest potential upside

After a day of lackluster movement, the market witnessed a positive trend in today's activity. The expected levels of the market are likely to be in the range of 15250 and 15600, and it's going to crucial for the short-term market scenario to sustain above the 15250 Nifty50 Index level. The momentum indicators like RSI and MACD supporting today's momentum and indicate potential upside from the current market level.

Views by: Ashis Biswas, Head of Technical Research at CapitalVia Global Research

4:02 PM

MARKET RECAP :: Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services

Constant fall in US dollar is driving the Indian equity market in addition to the falling infection rate. The sustenance of the rally is supported by the recent improvement in foreign investment with the stabilizing US yield and drop in the dollar index. The Indian Rupee is regularly appreciating against USD.

3:53 PM

MARKET RECAP:: S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities

Markets remained in the green as investors basked in the glory of the $3-trillion market cap which was achieved with ease thanks to the broad-based rally across market capitalisation. With FIIs being net sellers during April and May the appetite shown by domestic investors is getting reflected in the buoyancy across the market breadth. Today's Trade was led by the big boys - Reliance and HDFC twins as we did see profit-taking across Midcaps post-RBI comments on the consequences of liquidity infusion during the Pandemic

3:51 PM

Stocks that hit 52-week high on BSE today

Company	PRICE(rs)	52 WK HIGH	CHG(%)
ABB Power Produc	1904.70	2201.60	-0.95
Alkyl Amines	3792.20	3987.25	-1.77
Avanti Feeds	579.00	595.35	-1.04
Bajaj Finserv	11686.20	12021.00	-1.66
Bharat Forge	678.00	694.60	-0.72