Mid-day Mood | Recovery in metal, FMCG names push Nifty above 19,800; power and capital goods shine

Stock Market Today

Indian benchmark indices had opened marginally higher on September 8, however, a recovery in metal and FMCG counter in the past half an hour, helped extend gains. As a result, the Nifty 50 managed to surpass its immediate resistance of 19,800, for the first time since July 17, while the BSE Sensex topped 66,500 points.

With today's gains, the Nifty and Sensex stand just 1 percent and 2 percent from their record highs, respectively.

Sustained gains in frontline sectors like banks and automobiles also supported the uptrend in the market. Besides that power and capital goods names also witnessed strong buying.

At 12.07 pm, the Sensex was up 310.87 points or 0.47 percent at 66,576.43, and the Nifty was up 88.00 points or 0.45 percent at 19,815.00.  The market breadth also tilted in favour of gainers as about 1,802 shares rose, 1,230 fell, and 95 were unchanged.

With the gains in trade today, the Nifty stands less than 1 percent away, Sensex less than 2 percent away from their record highs.

Analysts had also pointed that the underlying sentiment within the market was changing towards a positive bias following gains in the past five straight sessions. Moreover, the 19,800 mark was seen as an immediate resistance for the headline Nifty, with expectations that a decisive move past that level would trigger a further rally towards previous highs of 19,900-19,950, analysts believe.

Stocks and sectors

Powers stocks were in the limelight following reports that said the Minstry of Power was likely to float a tender to facilitate procurement of 4,000-MW gas-based electricity, with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam appointed as the facilitator. The news ticked a surge in shares of NTPC which were the top gainers on the Nifty 50, up around 3 percent.

Other power stocks like Power Grid, Torrent Power and Adani Power were also up 1-3 percent, lifting the Nifty Energy index 1.1 percent higher.

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Larsen & Toubro also rode high for the second session on the upbeat sentiment after bagging a mega order from Saudi Aramco. Shares of the company extended gains from the previous session and were up over 2 percent.

Other index heavyweights like HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank also aided a rise in the headline index.

Shares of shipbuilding stocks surged higher in trade. Prominent names like Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers, Cochin Shipyard and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders hitting record highs on the sector's strong growth outlook.

Metals and select FMCG also recovered from their early losses, with the former being aided by an easing dollar index.

Among the outliers, profit booking seeped within the pharma stocks after recent gains, which weighed on the Nifty Pharma index, making it the worst-performing sector in today's trade.

The broader market also remained resilient, with the Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 back to outperforming the headline index with 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent gains, respectively.

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