The stock market indices traded at the day’s high levels. Sensex regained 48,000-mark. It rose 374.87 points or 0.79 percent at 48,080.67. The Nifty was up over 109.75 points or 0.77 percent at 14406.15. Metals, pharma and PSU banks were the major gainers on Thursday. ICICI Bank was the top gainer up 3.8 percent, followed by HDFC, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance and Kotak Mahindra Bank. FMCG sector and IT stocks were under pressure.
On the other hand, Titan, HUL, Asian Paints, Tech Mahindra and Nestle India were among the laggards.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets, pulling out Rs 1,082.33 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data
Abhishek A Rastogi, Partner at Khaitan & Co, said, “With new opportunities evidently visible for healthcare sector, the stock price of about a dozen of players in the healthcare sector touched 52 week peak. With the preparedness to deal with Covid on all fronts, the investor confidence is likely to boost up and may give a desired results in the medium to long run.”
India registered over 3.14 lakh new coronavirus cases in a day, the highest-ever single-day count recorded in any country, taking the the total tally of COVID-19 cases in the country to 1,59,30,965.
The oxygen crisis, precipitated by the second wave which has left tens of thousands hospitalised, appeared to intensify with complaints of shortage from several states.
The Bank Nifty index was the top gainer on the NSE-- up 2.25 percent. The Nifty midcap100 and smallcap100 closed 0.46 percent and 0.85 percent higher, respectively.
"In a volatile session, markets ended on a positive note despite the country recording its highest daily COVID spike as investors focused on broad basing of the vaccination program," said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.
Sharp bounce back in financials and favourable global cues supported the market''s rebound, said Binod Modi, Head - Strategy at Reliance Securities.
"Barring FMCG and IT, most of key sectoral indices traded positively. Notably, after seeing sharp rally in last couple of days, profit booking was seen today in many pharma counters. Volatility index hardened further by approximately 3 per cent," he added.
Mohit Nigam, head, PMS & advisory, Hem Securities said the market remained remained volatile today swinging between red and green. “There was some recovery seen in the financial sector today which led to the markets closing half percent higher. However, there is less stability and resilience of the market is tested again around 14,200 levels around which it is regularly bouncing back.”
There are hopes that the increase in restrictions might help slow down the ever-alarming covid numbers in few weeks, which has become the most important trigger for the markets to move meaningfully on the positive side. In the absence of a fresh positive development, there might not experience a bullish momentum for the time being and volatility will persist. 14,200 on the downside remains a key support, Nigam said.
Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President (Fundamental Technical Analyst), Kotak Securities Ltd, said the Nifty/Sensex has formed a bullish piercing pattern by closing above the median of the previous day, which was at 14,367/47,958 levels that can be found at the end of a downtrend. Based on it, our strategy should be to create long positions with between 14350/47950 and 14300/47,700 levels. On the higher side, we would see the levels of 14,530/48,500 and 14,580/48,650. A close above the levels of 14,580/48,650 would validate the formation of bullish reversal and in that case, the Nifty/Sensex may rally to even 14,850/50,000 levels where it has the biggest hurdle."
Chouhan said 14,250/47,690 and 14,150/47,200 would be major supports. Keep a final stop loss at 14150/47200 for creating any long position, he said, adding, today the market breadth was healthy and it was mainly due to renewed buying interest in financials. The Bank-Nifty closed at the highest point of the day. The focus should be on financials and metal stocks, he said.
Asian stocks positive
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo ended on a positive note, while Shanghai was in the red.
Bourses in Europe were trading with gains in mid-session deals.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.51 percent lower at $64.99 per barrel
