The sensex started the session on a relatively flat note with a gain of about 300 points at 57,781 but gained through the session to an intra-day high at 58,514 and closed the session at 58,461, up 1.4%. On the NSE too, the Nifty ended at 17,401 points, up 235 points or 1.4%. The gains in the sensex came on the back of strong GDP growth numbers for the July-September quarter and gross GST collection of Rs 1.32 lakh crore, second highest in history, during November, market players said.
In the last two sessions while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) net sold stocks worth nearly Rs 8,000 crore while domestic funds were net buyers at Rs 4,840 crore, data from BSE and CDSL showed. And in the last five days, FPIs were net sellers at Rs 16,250 crore while DIIs were net buyers at nearly Rs 17,100 crore.
According to S Ranganathan, Head of Research, LKP Securities, bulls held the upper hand on Thursday with IT stocks leading the charge. “As the volatility index cooled off (during the day’s session), we witnessed stock-specific action across sectors in the broader markets buoyed by GDP and GST data, together with cooling energy prices,” he wrote in a note to investors.
The strong rally of the past two days also added about Rs 5.3 lakh crore with BSE’s market capitalization now at Rs 265.5 lakh crore, official data showed.
With the Dow Jones index up nearly 2% in the US market in mid-session on Thursday, the rally in the domestic market is expected to continue on Friday as well, market players said.
Technically too there are indications that the current rally would continue. “Nifty has formed a bullish candle on the daily scale and has been making higher lows from the last three sessions. Now it needs to continue to hold above (the) 17,350 zone for an up move towards 17,500 and 17,777 zone whereas support can be seen at 17,150 and 17,000 zones,” a note from Motilal Oswal Financial Services said.
