Mumbai: Despite concerns regarding an escalation in trade war, the equity markets surged higher on the back of fresh buying in index heavyweights helping both the Sensex and Nifty to post their fifth consecutive weekly gains.
The Sensex soared 257.21 points or 0.73 per cent to end the day at 35,689.60 while the Nifty ended the day at 10,821.85, gaining 80.75 points or 0.75 per cent.
“The Sensex and Nifty have remained strong on the back of few large cap stocks and market leaders seeing incremental flows and buying interest at the expense of mid and small sized companies, which have seen selling pressure. While markets have rewarded businesses, which exhibit good earnings growth, the companies, which have failed to deliver on promises, have been punished.
Valuations and price points in a lot of good stocks have started to look attractive and it is important to take advantage of the volatility for adding/accumulating robust businesses with good growth prospects,” said Devang Mehta, head, equity advisory, Centrum Wealth Management.
According to the provisional data released by the stock exchanges, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,343.44 crore while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 1105.76 crore.
Financials stole the limelight with HDFC and Axis Bank gaining 2.54 per cent and 2.22 per cent respectively while Sun Pharma and M&M soared 3.91 per cent and 2.78 per cent.
“Going ahead, we would be monitoring the statements from the Opec meeting scheduled later in the day (Friday) and its impact on the crude price. Apart from this, the progress of the monsoons is also critical. Any easing of trade tensions between US and China would be perceived as positive by the market leading to some pullback in stocks,” said Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president, research, Kotak Securities.
