Equity benchmarks BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty closed marginally higher as investors’ sentiment was subdued ahead of the US Fed’s rate decision. Foreign portfolio investors stepped up their buying on Wednesday. They bought equities worth ₹4,710.86 crore, per exchange’s provisional data.
After remaining in negative territory for most part of the day, late hour buying in energy and auto stocks helped the indices to settle in green. Power stocks surged as electricity generation grew 20.4 per cent in October. Similarly, over 13 per cent growth in mining output led to rally in mining stocks.
While the Sensex advanced 33.57 points or 0.05 per cent to 69,584.60, Nifty gained 19.95 points or 0.1 per cent to 20,926.35. Compared to minimal gain by the Sensex, BSE MidCap surged 1.06 per cent and BSE SmallCap 0.73 per cent.
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Within the Sensex pack, NTPC (3.69 per cent) and Power Grid Corporation (2.33 per cent) were the top gainers, while IT majors such as TCS (2.13 per cent), Infosys (1.84 per cent), Tech Mahindra (0.79 per cent), Wipro (0.60 per cent) and HCL Tech (0.48 per cent) remained in red.
Among the sectoral indices, BSE Services (1.5 per cent) gained the most followed by BSE Realty (1.45 per cent), BSE Utilities (1.33 per cent), BSE Power (1.25 per cent) and BSE Auto (1.17 per cent). On the other hand, BSE Information Technology (1.12 per cent), BSE TECK (1.06 per cent) and BSE Oil and Gas (0.26 per cent) were the major laggards.
Of the 3,890 stocks traded on BSE, 2,129 stocks advanced, 1,646 declined and 116 remained unchanged. As many as 342 stocks hit 52-week high, 15 stocks hit 52-week low.
‘Rotation seen in broader markets’
Jaykrishna Gandhi, Head-Business Development, Institutional Equities, Emkay Global Financial Services, said the broader market has seen some rotation with the out of favour banks finding some interest and continued selling in the IT space.
“The broader markets continue to remain strong as seen by the $2.5 billion MTD buying by the FII on back of another $2.3 billion in November. The State elections gave a big boost to the market ahead of the central elections. Near-term, as we head into the year end, we expect some consolidation around the current levels,” he added.
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Echoing his views, Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said the market has been consolidating at higher levels for the past few sessions.
“All eyes are on the US central bank’s policy outcome to be released late today, where the focus will be more on Powell’s commentary for any hint on the rate cut next year. Overall, we expect the market momentum to continue on higher side supported by lower than expected inflation data, 16-month high IIP data, fall in crude oil price to 7 month low and FIIs buying,” Khemka added.