Sensex regains 61,000 mark, Nifty gains 52 points; realty and PSU banks rally

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Domestic benchmark equity indices opened higher on Friday following U.S. peers higher, while Chinese property stocks rallied following a surprise interest payment here by debt-ridden property developer China Evergrande Group. Market participants will look forward to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation at 10 am today. PM Modi’s address comes a day after India made the achievement of administering over a billion Covid-19 vaccine doses. In opening trades, Sensex jumped 126 points or 0.21% to 61,050 while the Nifty 50 index was quoting at 18,230 higher by 52 points or 0.29%.

“Minor correction in the market during the last 3 sessions has taken the Nifty down by 1.6%. More importantly, some froth in the broader market is getting removed with many leveraged momentum plays getting corrected by above 10%. Mid and small-cap indices have corrected by more than 5% during the last 3 days. This is a healthy correction. But still, there is froth in the broader market,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

An expected and interesting feature of the market trend now is the outperformance of the banking segment, which has been resilient even during market weakness. This trend may continue since there is valuation comfort in this segment, Vijayakumar added.

He further said that the resurgence of fresh Covid cases in China and some other countries and the consequent fresh lockdowns are areas of concern.

Top gainers & losers

Top gainers & losers on the Sensex.

Sectoral strand

Barring Nifty IT (down 0.36%) and Nifty Metal (down 0.21%) all other sectoral indices were trading higher. Nifty Realty index was the top gainer up by 1.46%, Nifty PSU Bank jumped by 1%. While Nifty Auto, Nifty Bank, Nifty FMCG and Nifty Pharma indices were up anywhere between 0.30%-0.61%.

The volatility gauge India VIX cooled off further by 3.47% to 17.40 levels.

Broader markets

Broader markets outperformed benchmark indices as the BSE MidCap index advanced 155 points or 0.60% to 25,972 while the BSE SmallCap was quoting at 28,882 up by 202 points or 0.70%.

Bulls took charge of the market as 1,653 shares advanced while 650 declined and 93 remained unchanged.

Earnings today

Reliance Industries, HDFC Life Insurance Company, Yes Bank, Apollo Pipes, Bharat Seats, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals, Dodla Dairy, Federal Bank, Gland Pharma, Hindustan Zinc, Inox Leisure, Jubilant Pharmova, Kajaria Ceramics, Kirloskar Ferrous Industries, Kwality Pharmaceuticals, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India, Omkar Speciality Chemicals, Polycab India, ABB Power Products and Systems India, PVR, Steel Strips Wheels, Subros, Sundaram-Clayton, Supreme Industries, Tata Consumer Products, Tata Elxsi, and Zenotech Laboratories will release September quarter earnings today

Global markets

Overseas, Asian stocks are mostly trading higher on Friday, as shares of China Evergrande Group surged in Hong Kong following media reports that the embattled developer is set to pay off a coupon payment on a dollar-denominated bond.

Evergrande has remitted the funds for a key interest payment that was due September 23 — ahead of a 30-day grace period that ends on October 23, as per reports. The $83.5 interest payment on Evergrande’s March 2022 offshore bond has been closely watched since the heavily indebted property developer warned twice in September that it may default.

In the US, the S&P 500 posted a record closing high on Thursday, helped by gains in consumer discretionary and technology shares, while U.S. Treasury yields jumped.

On the economic front, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to a new low point since the pandemic erupted. Unemployment claims dropped 6,000 to 290,000 last week, the third straight drop, the Labor Department said Thursday. Those are the fewest people to apply for benefits since March 14, 2020, when the pandemic intensified.