Sensex, Nifty end positive amid volatility

Benchmarks closed in green on Thursday at the end of a range-bound trade ahead of release of key economic data. Besides, monthly F&O expiry and MSCI rebalancing volumes added to the volatility, said market observers.

While BSE Sensex advanced 195.42 points or 0.27 per cent to 72,500.30, NSE Nifty gained 31.65 points or 0.14 per cent to 21,982.80 on the back of buying by foreign funds. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth ₹3,568.11 crore, show exchange’s provisional data.

Within the Sensex pack, IndusInd Bank (1.81 per cent), M&M (1.73 per cent), Nestle India (1.15 per cent), Asian Paints (1.13 per cent) were the top gainers, while Tata Motors (0.73 per cent), Tech Mahindra (0.60 per cent), TCS (0.59 per cent), Bharati Airtel (0.51 per cent) were the major laggards.

The broad market too advanced with BSE SmallCap gaining 0.5 per cent, BSE MidCap 0.84 per cent and BSE 500 by 0.43 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, except BSE Healthcare, all the indices ended in green. BSE Services was the top gainer with 1.46 per cent followed by BSE Power (1.01 per cent), BSE Commodities (0.79 per cent), BSE Industrials and BSE Metal (0.74 per cent each).

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Nifty futures witnessed a healthy rollover of 78 per cent, lower than 3-month average and Bank Nifty saw a sharp a dip in rollover at 73 per cent, indicating that traders are allowing their positions to expire rather than rolling them over due to expected volatility.

GDP Growth

The country’s GDP grew 8.4 per cent in Q3 FY24 on account of good performance by the manufacturing, mining and quarrying, and construction sectors, showed the data released post market hours by the government. The GDP growth for FY23 has been revised upwards to 7 per cent against the earlier estimate of 7.2 per cent.

On the other hand, the growth in eight core industries’ dipped to a 15-month low of 3.6 per cent in January 2024, which is the lowest monthly print in FY24.

Shlok Srivastav, Co-founder & COO, Appreciate, a SEBI and IFSCA-registered fintech company, said, “The quarterly GDP estimates for the October-December quarter will send out an emphatic signal to foreign institutional investors that in a gloomy global macroeconomic environment, India is holding its own and delivering a performance that merits the position of an economic outlier.”

“It is critical to note the difference between the released quarterly GDP growth figures and the Bloomberg Economists’ forecast. The December quarter GDP growth rate stood at 8.4 per cent against the Bloomberg Economists’ forecast of 6.6 per cent. Clearly, markets and economists alike need to revise their projections upwards on India’s future economic roadmap,” he added.

‘Remain cautious’

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said that overseas fund inflows have been volatile over the past couple of months due to global market uncertainty and slowdown fears. As a result, local investors will try to maintain caution with selective bullish bets, he added.