Stock market today: Sensex, Nifty make a smart recovery; can the momentum sustain?

Indian benchmark indices surged in the afternoon session on Wednesday led by gains in capital goods, banking and auto stocks. A rally in the  Adani Group  stocks also led to positive sentiment on Dalal Street. today. The 30-stock index climbed 439 pts to 80,442 and Nifty gained 134 pts to 24,328. Market cap of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 444.64 lakh crore in today’s session. 

Later, Sensex closed 230 pts higher at 80,234 and Nifty gained 80 pts to end at 24,274.  

Banking and metal stocks led the rally with the BSE bankex and BSE metal index rising 205 pts and 133 pts, respectively. BSE capital goods index gained 784 pts to 70, 332.

Adani Ports, NTPC, Maruti, Bajaj Finance, M&M, Tech Mahindra  and Axis Bank were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 8%.

On BSE, Adani Total Gas, Adani Power, Adani Enterprises and Adani Energy Solutions were among the top five gainers in the afternoon session. While stock of Adani Total Gas rose 17.17% to Rs 679.25, Adani Power rallied 16% to Rs 508.20 on BSE. 

On similar lines, Adani Enterprises and Adani Energy Solutions were trading  11.71% and 10% higher, respectively in the afternoon session on Wednesday. 

The rally in the Adani stocks came after the Indian conglomerate claimed that there were no bribery charges against Gautam Adani and other group executives.

With nearly a month remaining in 2024, Sensex has climbed 11.30% this year and Nifty rallied 11.90% during the period. 

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities said, "Technically, after early morning intraday correction, the Nifty took the support near 24,150/79,800 and bounced back sharply. On daily charts, the index has formed a bullish candle and on intraday charts it is holding uptrend continuation formation, which is largely positive. We are of the view that, as long as index is trading above 24150/79800 the bullish sentiment is likely to continue. On the higher side the market could move up to 24400-24500/80500-80900. However, below 24150/79800, uptrend would be vulnerable."

Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities said, "The near-term trend of Nifty remains up with range bound action. As long as Nifty continues with range bound movement, there is a higher possibility of a decisive upside breakout occurring in the near term. Immediate hurdles to be watched around 24400-24500 and the nearest support is placed at 24150."

Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services. said, "Upsides continue to be challenged, even as dips keep getting picked up. Meanwhile, neither are close to the downside target of 23,900 nor breached the upside marker of 24420. This suggests that the medium term objective of 25,262 will be in play as long as dips recover swiftly enough to continue floating above 24030 and will be encouraged to chase rallies on a direct rise above 24420. That said, we had played to pull back lower in the last two days, expecting a mean reversion after the large gains of Friday, and such expectations will remain for the day as well, aiming for 23900, as long as below 24260."

Among sectoral gainers, BSE capital goods index climbed 823 pts, BSE bankex gained 265 pts and BSE auto index rose 385 pts in the afternoon session today. 

Meanwhile, InCred Equities has revised its Nifty target.

The brokerage revised its Nifty target to 25,327 points, citing a delay in RBI's anticipated repo rate cuts and high expectations surrounding second-half earnings growth. 

The ongoing market correction, which began in September, is expected to persist for several months due to a challenging macroeconomic environment that limits EPS momentum, it said.

As many as 206 stocks hit their 52-week highs today. On the other hand, 32 shares fell to their their 52-week lows on BSE.

Market breadth was positive as out of 3984 stocks traded, 2531 stocks ended in the green. Around 1313 stocks closed in the red and 140 stocks remained unchanged.

BSE midcap and smallcap indices rose 74 pts to 45,874 and 510 pts to 54,433, respectively. 

Around 330 stocks hit their upper circuits as the stock market rallied in the afternoon session today. On the other hand, 211 shares hit their lower circuit limits.

FII-DII data

Foreign institutional investors bought Rs 1157 crore worth of equities on a net basis on Tuesday, while domestic investors sold Rs 1910.86 crore of shares, as per provisional NSE data.

Previous session 

Benchmark indices ended lower on November 26. Sensex closed 106 pts lower at 80,004 pts and Nifty ended 27 pts higher at 24,194.