Benchmark indices opened at record highs on Thursday’s trade. BSE Sensex traded at 74,119.39, up by 33.4 pts or 0.05 per cent as of 9.30 am, and Nifty traded at 22,494.50, up by 20.45 pts or 0.09 per cent.

The Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, Dr V K Vijayakumar, emphasised that there are some distinct trends in the market now. “One, large caps are outperforming mid and small caps. Two, Bank Nifty is emerging stronger led by private sector majors like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Ind Sind Bank, and Kotak Bank. Three, regulatory action on some NBFCs have impacted sentiments in the entire NBFC space, which, in turn, is improving sentiments in the high quality private banking space.”

Commenting on the nifty outlook, Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “As soon the dips stretched to the 22220 region, pencilled in yesterday as the initial target, buyers regrouped and effected a turn sentiment that would not only launch Nifty above 22450 but may have potentially cleared the path towards 23000-23500. Intermediate challenge may be seen in the 22550-600 region, while downside markers may be pushed higher to 22350/410 region.”

Vaishali Parekh, Vice President - Technical Research, Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd, said, “The support for the day is seen at 22350 level while the resistance would be seen at 22600.”

Meanwhile, Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities, stated that the best strategy is to buy Nifty between 22400 and 22350, with a stop loss at 22200. For Bank-Nifty, the buying range is between 47900 and 47700, with a stop loss at 47500.

Sectoral indices traded in a mix. Indices of auto, IT, private bank and oil and gas stocks declined. Nifty Bank which opened above 48,000 level, currently trades at 47,948.40, down by 0.04 per cent. Meanwhile, nifty metal rose by 1.38 per cent to trade at 8,371.40; nifty media was up by 1.22 per cent to trade at 1,962.80.

The shares of JSW Steel (3.16%), Tata Steel (2.28%),Bajaj Finance (2.23%), Bajaj Finserv (2.12%), and UPL (2.02%) emerged as top gainers on the NSE, while stocks such as M&M (-3.65%), BPCL (-1.09%), ICICI Bank (-0.67%), Infosys (-0.66%) and Axis Bank(-0.62%) were major laggards.

Stocks to watch

Shares of HAL hit a 52-week high at ₹3,320 on the NSE, currently trading at ₹3,300.80, higher by 2.25 per cent. Tata Investment Corporation stock is locked in upper circuit at ₹9,756.85, higher by 5 per cent on the NSE.

Meanwhile, IIFL Finance stock jumped 9.72 per cent on the NSE, to trade at ₹419.35 as of 9.49 am. The stock had hit a 52-week low in yesterday’s trade. JM Financial stock rose by 1.75 per cent to trade at ₹87.

JSW Steel reported its consolidated crude steel production for the month of February 2024 at 21.5 lakh tonne, up by 5 per cent y-o-y.

Infosys had renewed its partnership with ATP until 2026, for AI innovations in professional tennis

Macrotech Developers Ltd has informed the exchanges that the company’s board has approved issue price of ₹1,098 per share for QIP. Stock traded at ₹1,192.25 on the NSE, down by 0.37 per cent as of 9.42 am.

GPT Infraprojects stock surged by 3.30 per cent on the NSE as of 9.47 am to trade at ₹178.45, following the receipt of ₹135 crore contract from North Central Railway, Agra, Uttar Pradesh.

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