Street ends flat year with 1,000-point jump

Street ends flat year with 1,000-point jump

Indian equities signed off with an over 1.5% surge in the final session of the week and financial year, thanks to strong year-end buying and gains in overseas indices.

Friday, which also marked the start of a new F&O (Futures and Options) series, saw the Sensex surging 1,031.43 points or 1.78% to 58,991.52 — the highest single-day jump since the 1,181.34-point rise on November 11, 2022.

Meanwhile, the broader Nifty50 jumped 279.05 points or 1.63% to 17,359.75. The Bank Nifty skyrocketed 698.50 points or 1.75% to 40,608.65. The India VIX, a measure of volatility, was down to 12.94.

Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services, said: “As the financial year drew to a close, the market witnessed an upward trend marked by bullish moves in the banking and IT sectors driven by robust global cues.”

Accordingly to Nair, an increased interest from foreign institutional investors due to the moderation in Indian stock valuations also aided the market move. “While the US market awaits the release of personal consumption expenditures data, considered a crucial indicator for forecasting the Federal Reserve’s future actions, domestic investors await the RBI MPC meeting scheduled next week,” he added.

A note by YES Securities said the Nifty lost 2.5% in the current series, down for the straight fourth series. Yet, the Bank Nifty managed to outperform the benchmark indices. IT and auto indices were among the key draggers, down 8% and 7% in the current series.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers on index futures; the long-short ratio stood at 0.10 vs 0.24 on the February expiry.

Both domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and FIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 2,479.96 crore and Rs 357.86 crore, respectively.

“Indian indices witnessed a smart rally led by the large-caps and supported by small- and mid-caps. They played catch-up to global markets that had witnessed two consecutive days of strong move. Though we saw a decent rally this week, we believe markets may remain volatile in the near term as the banking crisis in US and Europe has not yet stabilised completely. This is against the backdrop of bond yields in the US having risen in the past week, which could further escalate banking issues,” said Naveen Kulkarni, chief investment officer, Axis Securities.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) led the gains in the Sensex pack, up 4.3% after the company called for a shareholders’ meeting on May 2 to take up demerger of its financial services operations.

Also read: Gold trades above $1950 after USD declines, PCE index forecast to show sustained inflation

Market breath was positive, with a total of 2,382 stocks advancing to 1,189 declining. Investor wealth rose by Rs 3.5 trillion.

In the Nifty universe, RIL gained 4.31%, followed by Nestle, Infosys and ICICI Banks, all jumping over 3%. Apollo Hospitals and Sun Pharma were the biggest laggards, down 1.3% and 1%, respectively.

All sectoral indices closed in the green, with the tech along with banking and financials leading the way. Indian indices outperformed major Asian markets, even as major global indices gained on the back of waning fears regarding the banking sector overseas.

However, both indices traded mostly flat in FY23, with the Sensex edging up 0.7% and the Nifty edging down 0.6%. There was a total of Rs 6 trillion lost in investor wealth in the financial year ended Friday.

The tech sector was the biggest loser over the year, with the BSE Information Technology index slumping 21.8% and BSE Teck sliding 20.1%. On Friday, however, they were the biggest sectoral gainers, rising 2.52% and 2.21%, respectively.