The bourses closed on a positive not after three days of losing streak aided by buying in HDFC twins and ICICI Bank amid mostly positive trends in global equities. On a monthly expiry day index, the Sensex was up 503.27 points or 0.94 percent at 54,252.53. The Nifty was up 144.40 points or 0.90 percent at 16,170.20. About 1,712 shares have advanced, 1509 shares declined, and 126 shares are unchanged.
Bank Nifty closed the session at 35094.90 level with a gain of 755.40 points. VIX closed at 22.57 down by 10.72 percent. 37 stocks out of NIFTY 50 closed in green which suggest broad-based buying.
Among top Nifty gainers were Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Apollo Hospitals, SBI and HDFC Bank. ITC, UPL, Divis Labs, Sun Pharma and Reliance Industries were laggards.
From the Sensex pack, Tata Steel, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Nestle, Wipro, TCS and Tech Mahindra were among the prominent gainers.
In contrast, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro and Dr Reddy's were the laggards.
Earlier at noon, Sensex was trading in the red, dragged by selling pressure in the index heavyweight RIL, Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel.
Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd said, the Markets witnessed healthy short covering towards the closing hours that helped key indices to reverse the 3-day losing streak. With the US FOMC minutes out of the way now, the market is more or less getting prepared for the likely rate hikes, and hence we saw strong buying on the F&O expiry day. While we may see bouts of selling going ahead due to other negative factors like higher inflation, continuous FII selling, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, relief rallies will still be seen amidst volatility.
On daily charts, the Nifty has formed a long leg Hammer formation which supports further uptrend from the current levels. For the trend following traders, 16,050-16,000 would act as the key support zone. Trading above the same, the index could rally up to 16,300-16,375. On the flip side, below 16000, uptrends would be vulnerable. Below which, bulls may prefer to exit out from the trading long positions. Below 16,000, the index could retest the level of 15,900-15,850, Chouhan added.
Palak Kothari, Research Associate, Choice Broking said, The Nifty has formed the Hammer candlestick pattern on a daily time frame which indicates reversal movement momentum for an upcoming session. Moreover, the nifty has taken support from the previous horizontal line and showed back movement crossing above 16410 level showing fresh buying in the counter. In addition, Nifty has given a closing above 9-Day Moving Average which indicates a bounce back moment in the counter. However, the momentum indicators MACD & Stochastic were trading with a positive crossover & reversed from oversold zone on a daily chart which suggest a northward journey in the counter. The Nifty may find Strong support around 15,900 levels, while on the upside 16300 may act as an immediate hurdle. On the other hand, Bank nifty has support at 34400 levels while resistance at 35,500 levels.
Rupee slips
Rupee slips 2 paise to close at 77.57 (provisional) against US dollar.
Moody's slashes Indian economy growth forecast
Moody's Investors Service on Thursday slashed India's economic growth projection to 8.8 percent for 2022 from 9.1 percent earlier, citing high inflation. In its update to Global Macro Outlook 2022-23, Moody's said high-frequency data suggest that the growth momentum from December quarter 2021 carried through into the first four months this year.
However, the rise in crude oil, food, and fertilizer prices will weigh on household finances and spending in the months ahead. Rate hike to prevent energy and food inflation from becoming more generalized will slow the demand recovery's momentum, it said.
''We have lowered our calendar-year 2022 growth forecast for India to 8.8 percent from our March forecast of 9.1 percent while maintaining our 2023 growth forecasts at 5.4 percent," Moody's said.
Asian markets close in green
In Asia, markets in Shanghai settled in the green while, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo ended marginally lower.
Bourses in Europe were trading in the positive zone in the afternoon trade.
Stock markets in the US had ended higher on Wednesday.
Crude jumps
International oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.54 percent to $114.7 per barrel.
FIIs data
Continuing their selling spree, foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 1,803.06 crore on Wednesday, as per stock exchange data.
