Stock Market Opens On Fresh Record Highs, Sensex Trading Above 69,000, Nifty Nears 20,800

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Tuesday started strong and hit new records in early trade. The BSE Sensex climbed 169.94 points to hit a fresh high of 69,035.06, while the NSE Nifty50 gained 52.60 points to reach a record high of 20,739.40. 

The benchmark indices continued their rally and kept making more records as trading continued in the morning. At 9:40 AM, the Sensex gained more than 200 points to touch 69,087.47 while the Nifty moved well beyond the 20,500 mark and climbed 75 points to stand at 20,762.20.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, M&M, Axis Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, and Tata Motors emerged among some of the early gainers. While, HCL Tech, Infosys, Tech M, Wipro, and Tata Steel were among the losers in morning trade. 

In the broader markets, trading started on a positive note. The Nifty Next 50 led the gains with an increase of 0.79 per cent, followed by Nifty Smallcap 50 which gained 0.73 per cent. 

Sectorally, Nifty IT remained the only laggard on the list with a loss of 0.78 per cent. Among the gainers, Nifty PSU Bank and Metal led the indices with increases of 1.11 per cent and 0.96 per cent respectively. 

Among specific stocks on the NSE, Adani Enterprises, the flagship firm of the Adani Group, continued its rally along with Adani Ports, from Monday. The conglomerate’s flagship company gained about 5 per cent and was trading at Rs 2,661.90 apiece, while the Adani Ports firm logged an increase of more than 5 per cent and stood at Rs 922.75 per share, as of 9:53 PM.

In the previous session on Monday, the two key equity benchmarks climbed over 2 per cent during the day. The BSE Sensex crossed the 68,500 mark and climbed nearly 1,400 points to close at 68,865.12, after hitting a fresh lifetime high of 68,918.22 during the day. The NSE Nifty50 jumped over 400 points and stood way beyond the 20,000 mark at 20,686.80 as the trading session closed for the day.

The domestic rupee depreciated 3 paise to hit an all-time low of 83.41 against the US dollar on Tuesday, owing to the increasing demand for the American currency from importers. Forex traders stated that investors are on the lookout for signals from the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy outcome. The Monetary Policy Committee of the banking regulator is set to begin its bi-monthly review meeting on Wednesday and come out with its decision on Friday. A day earlier, the currency closed at 83.38 against the American dollar. 

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) invested in shares worth Rs 2,073.21 crore on Monday, exchange data revealed. 

Elaborating on the market movement, V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services noted, ” The massive institutional buying is a reflection of institutional confidence in the Indian market. It is important to understand that FPIs have reversed their selling strategy and have been consistent buyers during the last 7 days. There is accumulation happening in the frontline banking stocks. This, along with short covering and reasonable valuations, will keep this segment strong. The market has the potential to go up by another 5 per cent in the next many weeks. Beyond that valuations will get stretched inviting correction in the market.”

In Asian markets, Hang Seng and Nikkei traded lower. The European markets finished on a mixed note on Monday. The US markets followed the same route. Global oil benchmark, Brent crude, dipped 0.01 per cent to $78.02 per barrel.