Sensex rises 157 pts, Nifty atop 17,300; Nifty Metal index up 3%, FMCGs dip

CLOSING BELL: JSW Steel, Hindalco, Coal India, L&T, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, HCL Tech, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Tata Consumer Products, Shree Cement, and Wipro were the top gainers

CLOSING BELL

Stock market highlights: Equity markets were volatile in trade on Thursday as investors adjusted their positions amid weekly F&O expiry. The S&P BSE Sensex oscillated within a narrow range of 405 points, before it closed at 58,222, up 157 points or 0.27 per cent.

The Nifty50, on the other hand, shut shop at 17,332, up 58 points or 0.33 per cent. JSW Steel, Hindalco, Coal India, L&T, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, HCL Tech, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Tata Consumer Products, Shree Cement, and Wipro were the top gainers, up between 1 per cent and 5 per cent.

On the downside, Bharti Airtel, HUL, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, Divis Labs, SBI Life, Britannia, HDFC Bank, and Bajaj Finance were the top laggards, down up to 2.5 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap index gained 1 per cent, and the BSE SmallCap index advanced 1.3 per cent. Among sectors, the Nifty Metal index rallied over 3.4 per cent, while the Nifty Pharma and FMCG indices saw profit booking as they slipped up to 0.5 per cent.

Brent crude at $100, again?

The decision by OPEC+ to cut crude oil output by 2 million barrels per day (bpd), or 2 per cent of global supply, is likely to see oil prices climb further, with Brent likely to top the $100 per barrel mark – up nearly 7.5 per cent from the current levels, said analysts. The new production cap levels come into force starting November 2022 and will remain in place until December 2023. READ MORE

4:12 PM

TECHNICAL VIEW: Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities

The Nifty started to gap up and remained volatile during the day. On the daily chart, a bullish island reversal pattern has been formed. The trend is likely to remain positive over the short term. On the lower end, 17250 may act as crucial support. On the higher end, the index may extend its rally till 17600-17700.

4:10 PM

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

The Indian market is maintaining its resilience despite mixed cues from global equities and surging oil prices. Both domestic and foreign investors are supporting the rally. The market was also bolstered by expectations on Q2 results session, with improvement in sectors like Metal, IT, and Reality. However, the decision of OPEC to significantly reduce output has increased oil prices, which is slightly unfavourable for importers like India.

4:05 PM

GLOBAL CHECK: European markets on a slippery slope

4:00 PM

GLOBAL CHECK: US equity futures muted; Dow Futures down 150pts

3:55 PM

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

Markets exhibited resilience amidst optimism and continued its upward momentum from where it left off in the previous session. In a VUCA world, India stands out as a growth market given the incremental momentum witnessed amidst festivities even as we come to an end of Durga Puja. Metals, Media & IT lent good support even as we saw a bout of profit booking in the late afternoon session.

3:51 PM