Taking Stock | Bulls tighten grip as indices extend gains to 5th day, Nifty tops 16,600

The Indian benchmark indices ended higher for the fifth straight session on July 21, with buying across the sectors, barring pharma.

At close, the Sensex was up 284.42 points or 0.51% at 55,681.95, and the Nifty was up 84.50 points or 0.51% at 16,605.30.

Amid mixed global cues, the Indian market opened marginally lower but soon erased the losses and turned positive. The last hour buying helped the market to close the session near the day's high.

"With support from FII buying, the domestic market was able to withstand the downward pressure from global markets to close on a positive note," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

"Global indices traded lower on rate hike worries as ECB in its meeting today is expected to raise rates by 50bps, while the Fed is expected to increase rates by 75bps in the upcoming meeting scheduled next week. Even though a rate hike of this magnitude has already been factored in, the major market driver would be their commentary on future inflation and growth forecasts," Nair added.

IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Tata Consumer Products, UPL, and Bajaj Finserv were among the top Nifty gainers, while losers included Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SBI Life Insurance, Cipla and Tech Mahindra.

On the sectoral front, except pharma, all indices ended in the green, with the PSU Bank index rising 1 percent, while auto, bank, FMCG, and information technology indices added 0.5 percent each.

On the BSE - Oil & Gas, Power, and Capital Goods indices rose 1-2 percent. And Auto, Bank, Realty, Metal, FMCG, and information technology were up 0.5 percent each.

Index	Prices	Change	Change%
Sensex	85,712.37	447.05	+0.52%
Nifty 50	26,186.45	152.70	+0.59%
Nifty Bank	59,777.20	488.50	+0.82%

Nifty 50 26,186.45 152.70 (0.59%)

Fri, Dec 05, 2025

• 1D
• 5D
• 1M
• 3M
• 6M
• 1Y
• 2Y

Biggest Gainer	Prices	Change	Change%
Shriram Finance	854.90	26.75	+3.23%

Biggest Loser	Prices	Change	Change%
Interglobe Avi	5,370.50	-66.00	-1.21%

Best Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty PSU Bank	8381.75	125.05	+1.51%

Worst Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty Pharma	22947.20	-11.80	-0.05%

The broader indices outperformed the main indices with the BSE midcap index adding 1.2 percent and smallcap index jumping 0.9 percent.

A long build-up was seen in Tata Communications, IndusInd Bank, and Deepak Nitrite, while a short build-up was seen in Crompton Greaves Consumer Electrical, Oracle Financial Services Software, and Dr Reddy's Laboratories.

Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 400 percent was seen in ABB, Tata Communications, and PVR.

On the BSE, 100 stocks, including Siemens, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, Bajaj Auto, and Bharat Electronics, touched their 52-week highs.

It would be crucial to see how prices behave in the next couple of sessions. Traders should now avoid aggressive positions here and look to book profits on the long positions. Trading with a stock-specific approach and proper risk management should ideally be the trading strategy in such scenarios.

The immediate support for the Nifty has now shifted higher to 16,480 and if this is broken, then the index could witness a price-wise correction. On the flip side, the resistance for the index is seen around 16,650 which is the important retracement level, and above that next level to watch will be the early June high of 16,790.

Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking

Markets managed to gain half a percent amid volatility on a weekly expiry day. The benchmark remained range bound for most of the day and finally settled around the day’s high. Meanwhile, healthy buying in banks, metals, & FMCG packs and buoyancy on the broader front kept the participants busy.

We maintain our cautiously optimistic stance and expect volatility to remain high, with more Nifty heavyweights like Reliance, UltraTech, and Infosys, announcing their earnings in the following sessions. Meanwhile, there’ll be no shortage of trading opportunities and participants should focus more on buying quality stocks from the sectors, which are trading in sync with the benchmark.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities

Investors traded with cautious optimism as gains in oil & gas, power, realty & banking stocks helped markets extend gain for the fifth straight session. The return of FIIs into domestic equity markets in the last few sessions coupled with receding commodity prices and hopes that the US Fed may not go for aggressive rate hikes in its next meeting has somewhat tempered the fears of investors.

Technically, on daily charts, the Nifty has formed a bullish candle and closed above the 100-day SMA (Simple Moving Average), which is broadly positive.

For traders, 16,500 would act as a key support level and above it, the index could move up to 16,700-16750. On the flip side, the strong possibility of a quick short-term correction is not ruled out, if the index trades below 16,500. Below the same, the index could slip to 16,450-16,420.