Mid-day Mood | Indices extend gains on return of FIIs; Nifty tops 19,800, IT soars

Stock Market Today

Benchmark equity indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty-50 traded in the green as investors continued to cheer softening US inflation. The markets extended their gains from the previous session, boosted by the lower-than-expected US inflation data, which sparked hope that the US Federal Reserve might soon start reversing the interest-rate hikes.

At 11:42 am, the Sensex was up 419.99 points or 0.64 percent at 66,095.92, and the Nifty was up 114.80 points or 0.58 percent at 19,790.30. Intraday, the broader index topped the 19,800 level. About 1860 shares advanced, 1250 shares declined, and 100 shares unchanged.

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As exuberance dominated the market in the previous session, V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services said, “An important trend in the market is the increasing clout of DIIs, HNIs and retail investors and the diminishing influence of FPIs. During August, September October and November till date FPIs cumulatively sold stocks for Rs 83,422 crores through the exchanges.

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The resilience of the market and strong up moves on favourable days have forced a rethinking in FPI strategy, which is why foreign investors bought Rs 550-crore worth of shares the previous day after sustained selling, he added.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turning buyers is favourable for banking stocks, particularly the large caps, which are attractively valued.

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Stocks and sectors

Bajaj Finance was back in the green again after slipping 3 percent lower in the early trade, a day after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred the non-banking finance company from sanctioning and disbursing loans under its two lending products.

Shares of Som Distilleries & Breweries gained a percent to Rs 301 after insider data revealed that promoter and managing director Jagdish Kumar Arora bought 11,000 shares at an average price of Rs 297.

Among the laggards, Paytm parent One 97 Communications, traded a percent lower as investors rushed to book profits after the stock gained almost 3 percent the previous day.

The broader market, too, traded firm. Volatility gauge the India VIX, however, jumped 5.05 percent.

Sectorally, all indices, barring Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Metal, were in the green. The Nifty IT clocked the highest gains, while Nifty pharma, auto and Realty added more than 0.6 percent.

In the 30-share Sensex pack, TCS and Infosys contributed the most to the gains.

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