Taking Stock: Markets bounce back, Nifty above 24,300 as RIL surges; Buying in defence-related stocks

Market Today

Bulls were back in action on Dalal Steet on April 29, with the benchmark indices erasing losses of the previous two sessions, taking Nifty 50 back above 24,300 led by buying in heavyweights including Reliance Industries and across sectors, barring IT stocks.

Indices started the week on a positive note, extending gains as the day progressed, with Nifty crossing 24,350 intraday but profit booking at higher levels erased some of the gains. At close, the Sensex was up 1,005.84 points or 1.27 percent at 80,218.37, and the Nifty was up 289.15 points or 1.20 percent at 24,328.50. BSE Midcap index rose 1.3 percent, while the smallcap index added 0.4 percent.

Reliance Industries, SBI Life, Bharat Electronics, Sun Pharma, JSW Steel were among biggest gainers on the Nifty, while losers were Shriram Finance, HCL Technologies, Eternal, UltraTech Cement, HUL.

Defence-related shares saw significant buying interest amid high geopolitical tensions, with HAL and BEL rising up to 5 percent and 3 percent respectively.

Among sectors, except IT, all other indices ended in the green with metal, realty, oil & gas, pharma, PSU Bank up 1-3 percent.

Global Setup

On Friday, Wall Street advanced to notch weekly gains, as investors parsed a spate of earnings and looked for signs of easing tensions in the US-China trade tensions.

European indices were trading higher, while Asian shares ended mixed as investors await progress in US trade negotiations with the region and signs of further stimulus from China.

Index	Prices	Change	Change%
Sensex	75,273.45	1,205.00	+1.63%
Nifty 50	23,306.45	394.05	+1.72%
Nifty Bank	53,708.10	1,102.45	+2.10%

Nifty 50 23,306.45 394.05 (1.72%)

Wed, Mar 25, 2026

• 1D
• 5D
• 1M
• 3M
• 6M
• 1Y
• 2Y

Biggest Gainer	Prices	Change	Change%
Shriram Finance	956.00	52.40	+5.80%

Biggest Loser	Prices	Change	Change%
Tech Mahindra	1,408.50	-24.20	-1.69%

Best Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty PSU Bank	8581.05	223.50	+2.67%

Worst Sector	Prices	Change	Change%
Nifty IT	29671.30	22.40	+0.08%

Also Read: UltraTech Q4 results: Net profit jumps 10% to Rs 2,482 crore, firm declares Rs 77.5 dividend

In stock-specific action, Reliance Industries shares gained 5 percent on healthy Q4 earnings, SML Isuzu shares slipped 10 percent after M&M to acquire nearly 59% stake for Rs 555 crore, RBL Bank shares jumped 10 percent despite Q4 profit tanks 80.5 percent, L&T Finance shares declined nearly 3 percent despite Q4FY25 profit jumped 15 percent.

Outlook for April 29

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities

The Nifty recovered smartly, shrugging off the negativity of last week. However the upside was limited to the recent high keeping the consolidation phase intact. On the higher end 24,360 has remained a resistance level and the Nifty might spend some more time around the current range unless 24,360 is decisively breached. Above 24,360, the index could move towards 24,550 where the 61.80% Fibonacci retracement level of the previous fall from 26,277 to 21,743 lies.

On the lower end, support is placed at 24,000 below which the index might start falling towards 23,800 or even 23,350.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities

Today, the benchmark indices bounced back sharply, with the Nifty ends 289 points higher while the Sensex was up by 1006 points. Among sectors, almost all the major sectoral indices traded in positive territory, but the Defense and Oil and Gas indices outperformed, with Defense up 4 and Oil and Gas gain 3 percent.

Technically, after a promising opening, the market maintained positive momentum throughout the day. Additionally, it formed a long bullish candle on the daily charts, which supports a further uptrend from current levels. We believe that the short-term market texture is still on the bullish side but buying on intraday dips and selling on rallies would be the ideal strategy for day traders.

On the downside, 24200/79800 and 24100/79500 would act as key support zones, while 24400-24500/80500-80700 could serve as crucial resistance areas for the bulls. However, if the market falls below 24100/79500, the uptrend would become vulnerable.

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