India’s benchmark indices started Friday on a muted note, despite a rally in broader Asian markets.
The Nifty gained 7.75 points, or 0.03 percent, opening at 24,196.40, while the Sensex rose by 129.28 points, or 0.16 percent, to open at 80,072.99.
Market experts attributed Thursday’s rally to Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) buying, but they cautioned that this momentum may not last due to the strengthening dollar, which could hinder sustained FII investment.
V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, “The uncanny ability of the market to surprise was evident in yesterday’s massive 445 point rally in Nifty. Largecaps outperforming smallcaps is a positive signal and may continue. However, it is too early to conclude that FIIs will continue to buy. With dollar index at 109.25 and the U.S. 10-year yield at 4.56 per cent, the macro construct is not favourable for sustained FII buying. Impressive pick up in deposit growth augurs well for banking stocks which are fairly priced.”
Among sectoral indices, Nifty Media led the gains with a 1.4 percent surge, while the auto, IT, and healthcare sectors opened under pressure.
In the Nifty 50, 29 stocks rose, while 21 declined at the time of this report. The top gainers included ONGC, HCLTech, SBI, Trent, and Mahindra & Mahindra. Hero MotoCorp, Infosys, TCS, Asian Paints, and Wipro were among the major laggards.
Akshay Chinchalkar, Head of Research at Axis Securities, said, “Nifty had its best day since Nov. 22 and also managed a close above the Nov 19 gap-down level of 24150 in a shot-in-the-arm for tactical bulls. For the second successive time, the mid-December break of the 200-day average turned out to be a bear trap. That said, follow through here is key, with an immediate hurdle at 24250 and critical resistance at 24306. Support lies at 24000 with an extension at 23830. Seasonally speaking, based on the last one year of data, Friday has been the best day of the week for the Nifty – the index has gained 0.2 per cent on average with a 60 per cent win-rate over this period.”
In the Asian markets, Japan remained closed for the New Year. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged more than 1 percent, Taiwan’s Weighted index gained 0.96 percent, and South Korea’s KOSPI jumped 2 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite saw a decline.
(With ANI input)