Indian equities logged sharp gains in the last hours after trading resumed post a technical snag that halted trading on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on February 24.
Gains were led by private bank stocks such as Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, boosted by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's statement that the private banks can now participate in government business.
"The government has lifted the embargo on private sector banks for the conduct of government-related banking transactions such as taxes and other revenue payment facilities, pension payments, small savings schemes, etc.," said the government in its statement available on the tweeter handle of NSitharamanOffice.
The Sensex closed 1,030 points, or 2.07 percent, higher at 50,781.69 while the Nifty jumped 274 points or 1.86 percent to 14,982.
The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices closed 0.77 percent and 1.08 percent higher, respectively.
The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms jumped to Rs 204.03 lakh crore on February 24 from Rs 201.38 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors richer by Rs 2.7 lakh crore in a single day.
The NSE halted trading in the Futures & Options Market at 11:40 am and the cash market at 11:43 am after the index price feed for several indices froze for several brokers. The trading resumed at 1545 hours and ended at 1700 hours.
"Technical glitch did not impact domestic market sentiment though volatility was high with a positive prejudice in the first session. During the extra session, the market gathered more strength and hugely outperforming the global peers, triggered by squaring off F&O positions a day ahead of the prefixed monthly expiry date," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking, expects volatility to remain high on Thursday due to the scheduled derivatives expiry of February month contracts.
"It would be prudent to avoid naked leveraged positions in early trades and prefer hedged bets," he said.
Sectors and stocks
Bank stocks hogged the limelight after the government lifted the embargo on grants of government business to private banks.
The Nifty Private Bank index jumped 3.87 percent, followed by the Nifty Bank index (up 3.80 percent) and the Nifty Financial Services (up 3.40 percent).
The Nifty PSU Bank index rose 2.78 percent. Barring the Nifty IT, which fell 0.11 percent, all sectoral indices closed with gains.
More than 250 stocks, including Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, ONGC and Power Grid, touched their 52-week highs on BSE.
Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Hindustan Copper, Suzlon Energy and Central Bank of India were among some 340 stocks that hit their upper circuits on the BSE.
Technical view
The Nifty formed a strong bullish candle on a daily scale and negated its formation of lower highs of the last five trading sessions.
As per Chandan Taparia, Vice President and Derivatives Analyst at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, the Nifty has to continue to hold above 14,900 to extend its move towards 15,150, and then 15,250.
On the downside, immediate support exists at 14,850 and 14,700 levels, Taparia said.
Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist – Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in, is of the view that in the next trading session, which is also a monthly expiry, if bulls fail to register a close above 15,000, then the trend shall continue to remain sideways but bearishness will resume only on a close below 14,635.
"A strong move beyond 15,000 may expand the current upswing towards 15,271. As bulls successfully defended the right technical support point placed around 14,600, positional traders can consider buying the dip with a stop below 14,700 levels on a closing basis," said Mohammad.
"As our twin momentum oscillators generated a buy signal after today’s rally, we advise positional traders to go long in the next session and look for an initial target of 15,271," he added.
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