Sensex Today: Indian shares were trading higher on Thursday, buoyed by strength in metal stocks and other Asian equities, as sentiment improved on growing expectations that major central banks may tone down their aggressive stance on rate hikes. Equity markets were volatile on Thursday as investors adjusted their positions due to the monthly F&O expiry. The S&P BSE Sensex slipped from a high of 59,960 to hit a low of 59,497. It ended at 59,757, up 213 points or 0.36 per cent.
The Nifty50, on the other hand, settled at 17,767, up 110 points or 0.58 per cent, after hitting an intra-day high of 17,784.
Tata Steel, Power Grid, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Bank, M&M, HDFC, Dr Reddy’s Labs, and Titan were the leading winners on the Sensex, up over 1 per cent each. Bajaj twins, Asian Paints, Nestle, Tech M, and Wipro were the laggards, down up to 2 per cent.
In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices gained 0.4 per cent each. Sectorally, the Nifty Metal index climbed over 3 per cent, while the Nifty IT fell 0.44 per cent.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: “PSUB is performing well due to better growth, high provision buffer, improvement in asset quality, and strong capital base in the ongoing Q2FY23 earnings. Along with growth in Net Interest Income (NII) brought by increase in credit demand, other income is also showing meaningful sequential jump due to reversal in treasury losses.”
“There was an open arbitrage opportunity due to the huge valuation gap between private and public sector banks. However, the gap has rapidly narrowed, limiting the upside gain in the short-term,” Nair said.
Global Cues
Globally, weak quarterly earnings from tech stocks weighed on the Wall Street on Wednesday. Tech-heavy index, NASDAQ Composite lost over 2 per cent, whereas Dow Jones was flat at 0.01 per cent, and the S&P 500 declined 0.7 per cent.
Markets in Asia-Pacific, too, were mixed in trade as Nikkei 225 was flat and Topix lost 0.3 per cent. Hong Kong and mainland China markets, however, edged higher boosted by tech stocks.
On the commodities front, Brent Crude climbed 0.3 per cent to $96 per barrel, on strong US crude exports and weaker dollar. WTI Crude, on the other hand, was up 0.3 per cent to $88 per barrel.
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