Nifty hits all-time high; analysts watching banking stocks

Tourism Finance Corporation is engaged in financing, corporate loans, working capital demand loan and structured financing within the hospitality segment.

Domestic benchmark turned flat after the Nifty hit all-time high of 22,248 in the morning trade on February 21 on slim gains in banking stocks.

The Sensex and the Nifty were trading at 73,103 and 22,211 on opening deals. Broader markets outperformed benchmarks as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices gained up to 0.3 percent.

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Analysts said the sentiment is expected to remain bullish as long as the Nifty trades between 22,000-22,100 zone. Banking stocks will have to chip for the index to trade higher.

"The range-bound move in Nifty for the majority part of the session portrays a sense of tentativeness at the higher levels and a conducive move could only showcase persuasion for the uptrend," said Sameet Chavan, Head Research, Technical and Derivative - Angel One.

From a technical standpoint, the Nifty's next breakout could be around 22,350-22,400 followed by 22,500, said Chavan.

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With eight days of record intra-day highs this year, Nifty is exhibiting strength. This resilient domestic buying is providing the main support to the ongoing rally in the market, said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Moreover, the fact that fairly valued large private banks are now contributing to the rally is also a positive signal, he added.

Sectorally, Bank Nifty was up 0.5 percent to trade above 47,300-mark within the first hour of trade, led by gains in IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, and Punjab National Bank.

"We predict some short covering in the Bank Nifty index today, which is the day of its weekly expiry. Traders are recommended to purchase on dips with a strict stop loss of 47,000 on a closing basis for the Bank Nifty," said Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking.

Apart from that, Nifty Realty and Metal indices surged the most - over 2 percent, whereas Media and IT stocks saw profit-booking.

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