Bulls conquer Nifty 9500 peak on strong liquidity deluge

There seems to be no stopping the bulls.

Within five days of crossing the 9400 mark, NSE Nifty hit yet another milestone, closing above 9500 for the first time even as Sensex made a new closing high.

In a primarily liquidity-driven rally, Nifty rose 66.85 0.71 points, or 0.71%, to end the day at 9512.25 while the Sensex surged 260.48 points, or 0.86%, at 30582.60.

Sentiment remained bullish on account of normal monsoon forecast, robust foreign fund inflows, benign inflation data.

Earnings in January-March quarter also fared better than anticipation where companies either met or beat analyst estimates. Employees Provident Fund Organisation's (EPFO) plan to step up stock market investments fuelled the rally.

Experts say 9800 for Nifty is not far off and Tuesday's close of 9456 will act as a strong support zone for the index.

“We are likely to see Nifty trading around 9800 in the mid-term and for the long term 10600,” said Abnish Kumar Sudhanshu, director and research head, Amrapali Aadya Trading & Investments.

In the Sensex pack, 21 scrips ended in the green. Shares of Punjab National Bank zoomed 4.5% on Q4 profit rise. Hero MotoCorp (3.09%), Bharti Airtel (2.98%), TCS (2.66%), ITC (2.20%), SBI (2.18%), Maruti (2.05%), Dr Reddy's (1.75%), Wipro (1.69%) and HUL (1.59%).

Among BSE sectoral indices, telecom rose 2.04%, followed by teck (1.13%), IT (1.07%), auto (1.07%), realty (1%), FMCG (0.98%).

Investors are betting on cyclical stocks and exporters on hopes of an earnings recovery. However, participation dormant sectors like telecom, IT and pharma in the rally may lead to market vulnerability, they warned.

Top three Nifty gainers were the Nifty PSU Bank, IT and Auto which closed with gains of 2.38%, 1.18%, and 1.11%, respectively. The Nifty Metal (-0.48%), Nifty Media (-0.29%) and Nifty Pharma (-0.06%) ended in the red. While metals, media and healthcare indices traded lower, auto, FMCG, IT and PSU banking indices witnessed gains of over 1%.

Trading continued to remain choppy as foreign institutional investors net-bought stocks worth Rs 235.33 crore while domestic institutional investors net-sold at Rs 65.77 crore on Monday.

Globally, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed at fresh highs on Monday as a jump in oil prices lifted sentiment. Key Asian indices in China, Japan and South Korea ended with gains of 0.20% to 0.74%, while indices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan fell 0.05% to 1.12%. In European markets, key indices in France and Germany fell 0.15% to 0.41% while UK's FTSE rose 0.46%.