Sensex, Nifty climb new highs on sustained bull run, investors richer by Rs 3 lakh cr

Investor wealth, reflected by the total market cap of BSE-listed companies, rose by Rs 2.78 lakh crore today taking the overall valuation to Rs 357.80 lakh crore. Today’s gain was on top of the nearly Rs 4 lakh crore gain in the previous session

Dalal Street scaled new benchmarks on December 15 as the bull run continued and buyers flocked to the stock market with sentiments remaining positive following the dovish stance taken by the US Federal Reserve. Strengthening rupee also helped the cause.

Investor wealth, reflected by the total market cap of BSE-listed companies, rose by Rs 2.78 lakh crore today taking the overall valuation to Rs 357.80 lakh crore. Today’s gain was on top of the nearly Rs 4 lakh crore gain in the previous session.

The Sensex closed 969.55 points, or 1.37 percent, higher at 71,483.75, and the Nifty ended 273.95 points, or 1.29 percent, up at 21,456.65. Market breadth was in favour of gainers. About 1,960 shares advanced, 1,800 declined and 121 remained unchanged.

Bank Nifty also reached a new milestone, racing past 48,000 level for the first time. Nifty IT, a representative of IT sector that has been the biggest contributor last couple of days, reached 20-month high level.

“The buoyancy continued in the market as investors were expecting the clouds over US economic growth to recede by H2CY24 and that the economy would achieve a soft landing aided by normalization in monetary policy,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

“The USDINR pair witnessed a steep fall on account of the prospects of interest rates being cut next year. The IT index outperformed expectations of a rise in demand in the US economy.”

Stocks and sectors

Broader market indices also closed with gains but underperformed relative to their larger peers. Nifty Smallcap added 0.71 percent while Nifty Midcap rose 0.11 percent. Nifty 500, the broadest index on NSE, advanced 0.9 percent.

Sectoral matrix was mixed. Nifty IT shines again, rising 4.56 percent. Nifty Metal, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Oil & Gas were other major gainers. Nifty Realty was the top loser, down 0.71 percent. Nifty FMCG and Nifty Auto also closed in the red.

Among Nifty 50 stocks, HCLTech was the top gainer rising 5.59 percent. TCS and Infosys also rose more than 5 percent each. SBI, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra and NTPC were other major gainers from the index.

HDFC Life Insurance was the top loser that slipped 1.83 percent. followed by Nestle India, Bharti Airtel, SBI Life Insurance and Bajaj Auto.

OUTLOOK for Dec 18

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities

There is a lot of enthusiasm amongst the investors, especially foreign investors, who are pumping in funds into domestic equities over the past few weeks post the state election results. Political stability and hopes of continuation of reforms going ahead coupled with US Fed’s dovish stance on rates, falling bond yields and sliding crude oil prices has improved the sentiment. However, due to overbought technical conditions, the benchmark may consolidate in the near term but that said, the near-term outlook for the market continues to be in favor of the bulls.

Ajit Mishra, SVP – Technical Research, Religare Broking

We could see a breather in the index after the recent surge and expect to hold the 21,000-21,200 zone in case of any dip. Much on the expected lines, banking and IT majors are among the top contributors in the present leg of up move and we believe their outperformance could continue. Participants should align their trades accordingly and avoid contrarian positions.

Rupak De, Senior Technical analyst at LKP Securities

The Nifty’s upward momentum persists with the bulls maintaining control in the market. Achieving a new all-time high, the index has marked its seventh consecutive weekly gain. The prevailing sentiment appears strongly in favor of the bulls, as indicated by the absence of any reversal signals on the technical charts. Resistance is observed at 21,500, while a potential further rally in the Nifty could occur upon breaching this level. Support is currently positioned at 21,300.

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