Nifty ends at life closing high; midcaps shine in Diwali

Moneycontrol Bureau

It was a glittering Diwali on the Indian bourses as it opened for a special mahurat trading to mark the beginning of the new year  Samvat 2070. The Nifty ended at highest closing level since November 5, 2010. The 50-share index closed at 6317.35, up 10.15 points while the Sensex ended 42 points higher, at 21239.36. 

About 1561 shares advanced, 468 shares declined, and 97 shares were unchanged.

BSE member Ramesh Damani feels the Nifty may touch 7,500 by next Diwali. Severe under-ownership of Indian equity by local and technical factors suggest the market is headed higher not lower, he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. However, fundamentals remain weak and the biggest over-hang for the market is US Federal Reserve’s decision on QE tapering. The market has not discounted the impact of QE tapering, so one cannot rule the possibility of the Nifty slipping to 5500 by next Diwali, he cautioned.

Meanwhile, Tata Motors, Jindal Steel, Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Power were top gainers in the Sensex. Among the laggards were ICICI Bank, M&M, HDFC Bank, L&T and HDFC.

Smallcap and Midcaps indices shone in the short trading session with a gain of over 1 percent each. Among the midcap stocks, Indian Bank (up 15 percent), Amtek Auto (up 7.5 percent) and Sadhav Engineering (up 5 percent) were the big gainers.

Jhunjhunwala, who owns Rare Enterprise, is slightly reluctant to call Sensex's milestone a "new high" because of the stark absence of retail investors. He also frowns at the brouhaha over FII buying because, according to him, it has been constant. However, the ace investor believes the market is headed north.

Among the commodity space, gold staged a modest rebound after its uninterrupted six-day losing streak while silver failed to glitter during the Mahurat session at the domestic bullion market, reports PTI.

"Jewellery stockists and retail investors made token purchases of gold to mark the beginning of the new Hindu Samvat year 2070," a bullion trader said.

The industrial metal -silver-dropped owing to sluggish demand as well as lack of buying support.