Mid-day mood | TGIF, markets at day's high, Nifty nears 19,700

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Thank God It's Friday. After a day of intense selling, Indian equity markets staged a smart recovery on September 29, bringing cheer to investors.

At 12.40 pm, the 30-pack Sensex was up 0.73 percent at 65,984, and the broad-based Nifty traded 0.81 percent higher at 19,680.

About 2,045 shares advanced, 950 declined and 103 remained unchanged. Heavyweights Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank helped the gains. Among sectors, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Metal led the rally with 2.7 percent and 1.5 gains.

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"The ‘sell-on-rally’ market construct is likely to change in October. October is usually a favourable month, both for US and Indian markets. There are indications that this historical trend may play out this October too,"  VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said.

Stock and sectors

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) gained 1.5 percent to Rs 3,057, touching yet another 52-week high.

The gains came on the back of a mega order win from Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for design and construction of an underground road tunnel project between Orange Gate, Eastern Free Way to Marine Drive Coastal Road in Mumbai.

On the flip side, IT services behemoth Infosys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra declined up to 1 percent intraday, reacting to Accenture’s modest revenue growth guidance of 2-5 percent year-on-year (YoY) in constant currency terms (CC) for the fiscal year 2023-24 (FY24).

By noon, the shares had recovered some early losses.

Also Read: Infosys, Wipro among top Nifty50 losers on Accenture's muted FY24 guidance

In the broader market, Navin Fluorine and MCX saw the steepest slump at 13 percent and 7 percent.

Investors dumped Navin Fluorine stock as the managing director Radhesh R Welling resigned from his post citing personal reasons. The resignation will come into effect from December 15. This is the third high-profile exit from the company in a year.

The shares of the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX), the country's largest commodity derivatives exchange, fell over 8 percent after market regulator SEBI put a temporary suspension on the planned launch of its new tech platform.

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