Nifty ends July series at 52-week closing high, Sensex up 184pts

Moneycontrol Bureau

Liquidity driven rally helped the Nifty end at fresh 52-week closing high amid volatility on Thursday, the last day of July series. Index heavyweights ITC, Reliance Industries and banking & financial stocks led the market higher.

Benchmarks remained positive throughout the session on hopes of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill getting passed in the Monsoon Session of Parliament after the Cabinet's approval to latest amendments in the bill, though there was volatility due to unwinding and rollover of derivative positions. The outcome of two-day Federal Reserve's policy meeting was non-event for the market, though it hinted possibility of rate hike later this year.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 184.29 points or 0.66 percent at 28208.62 and the 50-share NSE Nifty jumped 50.50 points to 8666.30.

Experts say the rally may continue in near term on inflow of foreign money, but they advise taking profits off the table as the market is inching towards 8700 level.

Pramod Gubbi, Director Institutional Sales, Ambit Singapore Pte. Ltd said abundant liquidity can take global markets to new highs, as major central banks are persisting with their easy money policies.

However, Gubbi cautions against buying shares at current levels as he feels the market has run ahead of fundamentals. The risks are more on the downside, he feels.

The broader markets also gained 0.6 percent on positive breadth. About 1487 shares advanced against 1165 declining shares on the BSE.

Asian Paints was the biggest gainer among Sensex 30 stocks, rising over 6 percent after strong set of Q1 earnings and maintaining double digit volume growth.

Maruti Suzuki rallied 4.5 percent. The country's largest car maker will start selling its first light commercial vehicle (LCV) under the Super Carry from next month while its Nexa outlets are likely to account for 15 percent of sales by 2020.Punjab National Bank lost nearly 3 percent after profit in first quarter fell 57 percent on yearly basis and gross non-performing assets jumped to 13.75 percent QoQ.

After market hours, Eicher Motors announced June quarter earnings saying profit grew by 58.6 percent driven by strong revenue as well as operational performance in Royal Enfield business. The stock was up 3.7 percent.

Sun Pharma added 2 percent on signing licensing agreement with Spanish company Almirall for development and commercialisation of Tildrakizumab drug in Europe.

ITC, TCS, Reliance Industries, HDFC, SBI and Coal India gained 1-2.5 percent while L&T, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, Adani Ports and Dr Reddy's Labs fell 1-3.5 percent.

On the global front, Asian markets closed mixed as traders digested earnings and waited for Bank of Japan's decision. Japan's Nikkei fell 1.1 percent while European stocks were choppy at the time of writing this article.