Sensex rises 150 pts, Nifty above 24,650; Infosys gains on Versent acquisition

Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty50 opened marginally higher on Thursday, mirroring the upbeat mood across Asia. Investor sentiment, however, remained watchful as focus turned to the outcome of Russia-US talks on the Ukraine conflict.

At 9:18 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 90.24 points higher at 80,630.15, gaining 0.11 per cent after rising as much as 154 points in early trade. The NSE Nifty50 advanced 9.20 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 24,628.55, after touching day’s high of 24,664.35.

Hardik Matalia, Derivative Analyst - Research at Choice Equity Broking Private Limited, said the benchmark Sensex and Nifty indices are expected to open on a flat note on August 14, following GIFT Nifty trends indicating a loss of 18 points for the broader index. 

“After a flat opening, Nifty can find support at 24,500 followed by 24,400 and 24,300. On the higher side, 24,700 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 24,800 and 24,900,” Matalia said.

Among Sensex stocks, Infosys led gainers, rising 1.12 per cent to Rs 1,442. Sun Pharma climbed 0.65 per cent. Other gainers included Adani Ports (up 0.63 per cent), TCS (up 0.60 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (up 0.59 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (up 0.48 per cent).

Infosys shares gained 1.12 per cent to Rs 1442 in Thursday’s trade after the IT major announced plans to acquire a 75 per cent stake in Versent Group, Australia’s leading digital transformation solutions provider and a wholly owned subsidiary of Telstra Group, for AUD 233.25 million.

ICICI Bank shares edged 0.32 per cent higher to Rs 1,425.75 in Thursday’s trade after the private sector lender announced a sharp cut in minimum monthly average balance requirements across categories. For metro and urban branches, the threshold has been reduced to Rs 15,000 from Rs 50,000, for semi-urban branches to Rs 7,500 from Rs 25,000, and for rural branches to Rs 2,500 from Rs 10,000.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, said the market will be in a wait and watch mode looking for clues from the Trump-Putin summit and PM Modi’s Independence Day message. 

“From the technical perspective, the market is oversold and short-positions are high. Any positive news which triggers short covering can lead to a rally. We will have to wait and watch,” Vijayakumar said

“Fundamentally strong banking stocks have drifted down in the last one month while mid and smallcaps with elevated valuations continue to remain resilient. This a liquidity driven short-term aberration. Long-term investors can exploit this value discrepancy by moving away from highly valued mid and smallcaps to the safety of high quality largecaps," Vijayakumar added.

Domestic equity benchmarks settled higher on Wednesday amid positive investor sentiment after softer US inflation data strengthened expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut in September. The BSE Sensex was up 304.32 points, or 0.38 per cent, at 80,539.91. The NSE Nifty50 rose 131.95 points, or 0.54 per cent, to settle at 24,619.35.