Nifty ends near days high, supported by banks and media

Nifty inched higher by a per cent for the third straight day to close near 17,800.

Market update at 3.30 PM: It was a phenomenal Wednesday as the Indian indices continued to surge as the day progressed. Nifty inched higher by a per cent for the third straight day to close near 17,800. Sensex too gained about 700 points. It was a broad-based rally as Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap rose about 1.18 per cent & 1.44 per cent, respectively. 

The top contributors to the rally were undoubtedly the banks. Nifty PSU Bank shot up by over 3 per cent while Nifty Bank closed about 2.33 per cent higher. Meanwhile, Nifty Media surged 1.77 per cent. 

The top gainers among Nifty stocks were IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv, and HCL Technologies while Tech Mahindra & UltraTech Cement stayed weak today. 

With the weekly expiry coming up, the maximum addition of open interest on the put side has been done at 17,700, followed by 17,600. The 18,000 continues to hold maximum open interest on the call side.

Market update at 12.50 PM: Nifty is currently trading at the day’s high and has surged about 1.05 per cent. Sensex has also reclaimed the 59,500 levels. The sentiment of the Indian market today is quite positive as mid-cap and small-cap stocks are also soaring. Along with this, India VIX has crashed over 6 per cent, taking the tally to over 15 per cent in just two trading sessions. 

The top contributors to Nifty rally are Bajaj Finserv and IndusInd Bank, which have shot up over by 5 per cent & 4 per cent, respectively. Moreover, Nifty PSU Bank has surged over 2 per cent today. 

With the ongoing bullishness, the PCR has jumped to 1.01 from 0.80. As more put options are written, the 17,500 holds major support for this week’s expiry. However, more addition of the call option is done at 18,000, which suggests a range of 17,500-18,000.  

Market update at 10.30 AM: The first hour has been fantastic as Nifty sustained the gap-up. Nifty opened around 17,700 and has gained about 50 points since then. It is currently up by 0.95 per cent while Sensex has surged around 550 points. Moreover, Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap are trading over 1 per cent each. 

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Media turned out to be the outperformer and has soared over 2 per cent while Nifty Financial Services is also up by 1.60 per cent. ZEEL and HDFC are both trading above 1.5 per cent each.   

The top gainers in the early hour are Bajaj Finserv and IndusInd Bank while Tech Mahindra & Adani Ports emerged as the top losers.  

Pre-market update: Asian markets have opened higher amid good global cues with SGX Nifty indicating a gap-up of about 125 points. Thus, Nifty is likely to open around 17,700.

Last night, the US markets ended in green after opening lower. It went up for the third straight day and have seen US VIX fall about 30 per cent during this period. Currently, US VIX is at 22, which is at par with India VIX. This can be an indication for stability in the global market after being highly volatile for the past few weeks.

The FIIs have sold for just about Rs 21 crore while DIIs bought about Rs 1,597 crore worth of equity.

The Indian market rallied higher on the day of Budget, which has bought positive sentiment among the market players. 

Natural gas fell about 3 per cent after surging higher in the past few days while the precious metals are trading slightly higher.

Key companies to declare results are HDFC, Zee entertainment, and Jubilant Foodworks. These stocks will be in focus among the market participants today.

The 18,000 call option has the highest open interest. Besides, the 16,500 has the highest open interest on the put side, followed by 17,000. Thus, a broad range of 17,000 to 18,000 can be expected for this expiry.