Sensex Hits 80,000, Nifty at 24,300: IT and Pharma Lead

Driven by a notable rebound in information technology (IT) companies, benchmark indices came out Thursday’s trading session on a bullish note. Closing 62.87 points higher at a historic 80,049.67, the S&P BSE Sensex closed; the NSE Nifty50 gained 15.65 points and settled at 24,302.15. Along with Nifty Pharma, the Nifty IT index climbed over 1% and ranks among the top gainers among Nifty sectors indices.

“From the beginning, the Index battled to retain its gains, ending the session at 24,302.15 with a minor rise of 15.65 points, Aditya Gaggar, Director of Progressive Shares, said. The Pharma industry recovered its pace and progressed more than 1% to rank first; followed by IT.” He then pointed out, “Media and FMCG sectors fell behind. As Mid and Smallcaps climbed over 0.45%, the interest of market players turned towards more general markets. The Index has struggled to maintain higher levels over the last few days; negative RSI divergence points to declining momentum.

While the Nifty 50 hit a fresh all-time high of 24,292, almost approaching the 24,300 level, the S&P BSE Sensex remarkably exceeded the 80,000 mark for the first time. Heavyweights, especially HDFC Bank, which saw its shares rise by 3.66% to a fresh all-time high of ₹1794 apiece, helped mostly support the march. With HDFC Bank alone adding 69.6 points, or 51% of the whole gain, the Nifty 50 acquired 136 points. Other big banks supporting the frontline indices and pushing them to higher levels were Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and Kotak Bank.

HDFC Bank’s foreign institutional investor (FII) shareholding dropped to less than 55%, then its share boom followed. Analyzers believe this drop will result in higher MSCI inflows. Wealth manager Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research claims that the MSCI weightage might rise dramatically if FII ownership falls below 55%, hence possibly producing inflows of $3.2 billion to $4 billion. Right now, HDFC Bank has about 3.8% of weight in the MSCI EM index.

Second time in a week, the Nifty Bank index also exceeded the 53,000 threshold to achieve a fresh all-time high of 53, 201. Eight of the twelve index members were trading in the green as of 10:00 a.m.; HDFC Bank and Federal Bank led gains at 4% and 3%, respectively.