Major benchmark indices opened positive on Thursday, trailing their global counterparts. At 9:16 am IST, the Sensex rose 504.88 points, or 0.91 percent, to 55973.78, and the Nifty rose 160.40 points, or 0.97 percent, to 16766.40. About 1,624 stocks are up, 236 stocks are down and 45 stocks are unchanged.
Coal India, ONGC, IOC, UPL and Tata Steel were among the big winners of the Nifty, while the losers were HDFC Life, SBI Life Insurance, UltraTech Cement, Nestle India and Cipla.
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were in positive territory, up as much as 1.5 percent.
dr. VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “Global markets received relief from Fed Chief Powel’s approval of a 25 bp rate cut in March. Powel’s comment that “we are not going to increase uncertainty” is confirmation that rate hikes will not alarm the market.”
The removal of “uninvestable Russia” by Morgan Stanley from the MSCI index is positive in the long term for stable markets like India, which will attract more FPI funds.
But in the near term, India will continue to face headwinds from expensive crude. The scenario will not change until the war ends and crude oil falls sharply. Meanwhile, commodities like metals will continue to outperform and IT will be resilient. Financials offer attractive long-term bets, Vijayakumar said.
“Nifty corrected 11 percent from peak. But since FIIs are ruthless salespeople, further correction cannot be ruled out. Investors may begin to nibble on high-quality stocks that have been adjusted disproportionately,” Vijayakumar added.
Read all the latest news, breaking news and live updates from the elections here.