Bulls takeover as Nifty turns green for 2025, logs six-day winning run; banks, IT stocks lead

The bull run carried on for Dalal Street as gains in index heavyweight names lifted the market.

It was another day in the green for the market as benchmarks Sensex and Nifty 50 ended with solid gains for the sixth consecutive session on March 24. The rally that was driven by strong buying across heavyweights banking and information technology stocks, helped the two benchmarks reclaim one-month highs.

The Nifty 50 soared passed a key psychological resistance of 23,500 while the Sensex jumped over to 1,100 points. With this, the Nifty 50 not just exited its correction phase, but also turned positive year-to-date. The Sensex though, continues to remain marginally into the red for the year thus far, but the 30-stock index did exit its correction territory.

Markets are said to be in a corrective phase when they fall 10 percent from their highs. Buoyed by the six-day winning run, the Sensex and Nifty are now down less than 10 percent from their peaks.

At close, the Sensex was up 1,131.93 points or 1.47 percent to 78,037.44, while the Nifty climbed 328.25 points or 1.41 percent to 23,678.65. Market breadth remained positive, with 2,389 shares advancing, 1,582 declining, and 155 remaining unchanged.

Despite the gains, volatility also remained high as its barometer, the India VIX index ended the session 9 percent higher at levels around 14.

Upbeat global cues, stronger rupee, easing valuations and improved buying from foreign institutional investors were some of the major factors that have been guiding the rebound in the market since last week. FIIs have turned net buyers of Indian equities in the past three out of four sessions after relentless selling for one straight month.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, stated that it was the reversal in FPI selling that has strengthened market confidence, attributing this shift to robust domestic growth, easing inflation and a weaker dollar.

Mahendra Patil, Founder and Managing Partner of MP Financial Advisory Services echoed similar sentiment, applauding that the market's strongest weekly gain in four years on the back of a combination of favourable factors.

According to Patil, attractive valuations following a prolonged correction, growing expectations of an RBI rate cut, renewed foreign inflows, robust domestic institutional participation, and supportive global cues all contributed to the rally. He further noted that investor sentiment toward India remains structurally positive, with the country increasingly being viewed as a long-term growth story.

Strong digital infrastructure, ongoing economic reforms, favourable demographics, and rising consumption potential underpin this outlook. "Periodic market corrections continue to provide opportunities for reallocation into high-quality Indian equities with improved risk-reward profiles," Patil added.

However, he cautioned that global uncertainties, including geopolitical tensions and tariff-related disruptions, remain key risks. Going forward, the market’s trajectory will depend on a sustained recovery in domestic consumption and resilient corporate earnings.

Meanwhile, the broader markets also glimmered in the green, matching the strong buying seen across large-cap counters. The Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices soared close to 1.5 percent each.

On the sectoral front, all 13 sectoral indices traded with sharp gains, with Nifty Bank, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Private Bank leading the charge with a 2-3 percent surge. Nifty IT, Nifty Realty, Nifty Energy and Nifty Auto indices also logged strong gains of 1-2 percent.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, and SBI were among the top gainers across the Bank Nifty and Nifty 50 indices, as investors bought into the large-cap banking names, given reasonable valuations.

Among specific stocks, marquee banking names like HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank attracted strong buying on the back of their reasonable valuations, surging 2-5 percent.

Another index heavyweight, Reliance Industries also lent support to the benchmarks with its over 2 percent gains.

IT stocks also staged a rebound, with names like TCS, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and HCLTech soaring 2-4 percent.

Collectively, all these banking and IT stocks along with RIL contributed more than half of the Nifty 50's total gains for the day.

On the technical front, Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, stated that the Nifty 50 is nearing the completion of its first leg of the 23,450-23,807 move set last week. The index has been trading above the upper Bollinger Band for three consecutive sessions, but he pointed out that 60 percent of Nifty 50 stocks are yet to cross their upper bands, suggesting potential for new market leaders to emerge.

James cautioned that if the index fails to break past the 23,450-23,500 zone or closes below 23,300, it could trigger a downside move towards 23,160.

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