Global growth expectations have slumped to a five-month low.
The NSE Nifty ended at 2,719, up 102 points. The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,551 stocks traded, 1,583 advanced, 855 declined and 113 were unchanged on Friday.
The rally in PSBs, analysts feel, was more a knee-jerk reaction to the development, and the actual benefits will start to accrue once the addition takes place in 2024. "The actual benefit for banks from the inclusion in JP Morgan's EM Index will accrue from June 2024 onwards. "Until then, the larger fundamentals of the market will dictate the moves. "Once the initial euphoria subsides, bond markets will look to global cues which may trigger fresh selling," said Siddharth Khemka, head of retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
Sentiment in the market will also be guided by other major market movers like trend in the rupee, Brent crude and foreign capital flows.
Notwithstanding the risk involved, analysts are upbeat on micro-cap investing as India remains in a firm bull market. Moreover, these stocks are available at relatively cheaper valuations compared to large, mid and small caps, assuring alpha returns. With a market-capitalisation (market-cap) of up to Rs 10,000 crore, micro-cap stocks are outside the purview of Nifty 500 stocks, and are ranked from 501 to 750 in the market-cap ladder.
These 10 stocks represent the best mix of value and growth, offering relatively low price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios, a high return on equity, and sufficiently high potential from current levels.
Adding the 300-point gain on Tuesday, the index has nearly regained the 1,200 points it had lost in six sessions till Monday. The NSE Nifty ended at 5,938, up 243 points.
Among the 30 Sensex companies, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti, JSW Steel and Bajaj Finserv were among the laggards. In contrast, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, Nestle and Titan were the biggest gainers.
Foreign investors have pulled out a massive Rs 22,000 crore from Indian equities so far this month, due to uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections and outperformance of Chinese markets.
We have not suffered such huge price shocks across so many basic commodities, at the same time, in decades. Has the inflationary impact of all this been factored into stock prices as yet, asks Debashis Basu.
From the Sensex basket, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, UltraTech Cement, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Asian Paints were the major gainers. NTPC, JSW Steel and HDFC Bank were the laggards.
Among the Sensex pack, Yes Bank, L&T, HDFC, RIL, HDFC Bank, PowerGrid and Coal India were the biggest losers -- falling up to 2.43 per cent.
tailwinds of a remarkable year and handsome investor returns, Indian equities are set for an eventful journey in 2024, with a slew of local and global cues -- varying from interest rates to Lok Sabha polls to geopolitical happenings. Analysts are of the view that the bull run in the domestic equity market will continue, and over the next 3-6 months, the benchmark indices -- Sensex and Nifty -- could climb up to 7 per cent. In 2023, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 11,399.52 points or 18.73 per cent, and the NSE Nifty climbed 3,626.1 points or 20 per cent.
Investors engaged in profit booking in the recent gainers at attractive and higher valuations.
Benchmark equity indices continued their record-shattering spree on Tuesday, with the Sensex and Nifty hitting their fresh all-time high levels in early trade, amid persistent foreign fund inflows. Also, buying in Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Consultancy Services and HDFC twins added to the positive market momentum. Rallying for the fifth straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 381.55 points to hit its all-time peak of 65,586.60 in early trade.
While tech stocks led the gains, Old Economy and defensive sector stocks also contributed significantly to the market rally.
The Nifty too reversed its trend, and ended with a gain of 33 points at 4,986, after a gap of three trading days. BSE market breadth was fairly positive. Out of 2,885 stocks traded, 1,693 advanced while 1,109 declined on the BSE.
The chemicals sector's recovery could be delayed until FY25 if the current trends of weak demand and flat pricing continue. Following a subdued September quarter, the revenue and profit performance of listed chemicals companies are anticipated to fall short of initial expectations of an improvement. Despite some price stability, the demand trajectory remains uncertain.
