Market at record high! Sensex jumps over 300 points, Nifty trades near 19,850; Titagarh Rail Systems jumps 10%

Indian equity benchmarks were up in Wednesday's trade to scale their fresh all-time highs. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack surged more than 300 points to touch its all-time high of 67,117, while the broader NSE Nifty moved over 100 points up to scale a fresh record peak of 19,842. The domestic indices traded higher, powered by Reliance Industries (RIL) ahead of the demerger of its financial services unit, HDFC Bank's strong June-quarter (Q1 FY24) results and Infosys after bagging $2 billion AI deal. Mid- and small-cap shares were positive as Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.38 per cent and small-cap jumped 0.68 per cent.

On the global front, Asian markets, with the exception of Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, edged higher. Overnight, Wall Street equities closed higher, aided by strong earnings and robust retail sales data for June.

Back home, 14 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Consumer Durables, Nifty Oil & Gas, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Bank were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 1.08 per cent, 0.62 per cent, 0.57 per cent and 0.32 per cent, respectively. Nifty Auto was the only sub-index which was down 0.14 per cent.

On the stock-specific front, NTPC was the top gainer in the Nifty pack as the stock gained 4.67 per cent to trade at Rs 196.10. IndusInd Bank, Dr Reddy's Britannia and PowerGrid rose up to 1.81 per cent.

In contrast, Hindalco, HDFC Life, Hero MotoCorp, M&M and LTI Mindtree were among the top laggards.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,010 shares were advancing while 774 were declining on BSE.

On BSE, index heavyweights such as RIL, HDFC Bank and Infosys were among the major contributors to the rise.

Titagarh Rail Systems, Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy, Bharat Bijlee, SJVN, Techno Electric & Engineering Company and Reliance Infra surged up to 9.78 per cent. In contrast, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, MRPL, Marksans Pharma, MFSL and Vaibhav Global slipped up to 3.64 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors bought Rs 2,116 crore worth of Indian equities on a net basis during the previous session, while domestic investors sold Rs 1,318 crore of shares, as per provisional NSE data.

"The market continues to be resilient supported by favourable global set-up and sustained FII inflows. In India we have the extra push being provided by the sustained FII flows. In July FIIs have been buyers in 11 out of 12 trading sessions and have invested Rs 15,156 crore through the stock market alone, excluding bulk deals. In contrast, DIIs were sellers in 8 out of the 12 trading sessions with a net sell figure of Rs 7,868 crore," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

On Tuesday, Sensex had climbed 205 points or 0.31 per cent to settle at a fresh closing high 66,795, while Nifty had moved 38 points or 0.19 per cent to hit a record closing peak of 19,749.

Nifty outlook

"Bears remained dominant for most part, but the bulls managed larger strides, even though they were restricted to the opening as well as the closing hour. This also meant that the bearish objectives were under achieved. Formation of a weak hammer pattern in the daily periodicity allows bears to stay close, but will need a confirmation from a close below 19,750. Else, the default trajectory continues to point higher with 19,850-19,950 as the nearest objectives. Alternatively, prospects of 19460 as the bearish objective will emerge stronger, if 19,668-19,620 supports get broken," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

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