Indian share markets continued their bullish run for the fourth consecutive session on Thursday, with sheer buying in banking shares driving key indices to strong gains.
The BSE Sensex, which is celebrating its 150th birthday on April 17, began the day in a weakish manner at 76,968 and went as low as 76,666 in the session. Later, there came a good bounceback, and the index surged to an intra-day high of 78,617 — recording a steep turnaround of 1,951 points from its session low.
The Sensex recovered by 1,509 points, or 1.96%, to close at 78,553 by the end of the day.
NSE Nifty too reflected this strength. After touching a low of 23,299 in the initial trade, it bounced back forcefully to touch a high of 23,872 before closing at 23,852 — higher by 414 points or 1.8%.
Heavyweights like Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, and Eternal led the Nifty's rally as they recorded considerable gains. In contrast, shares such as Wipro, Hero MotoCorp, Tech Mahindra, and JSW Steel also witnessed some selling pressure and ended in the red.
Across industries, sentiment among investors continued to be positive. Telecom, PSU banks, oil & gas, pharma, auto, energy, and private banking stocks appreciated by between 1% and 2%, demonstrating interest across the board.
The positive tone permeated the wider market too, as both BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices edged higher by around 0.5%.
Ruchit Jain, Motilal Oswal's Vice President of Technical Research, said about the prolonged rally, "The rally seems to be more than a short-term pullback, as it is backed by widespread participation, particularly from large-cap names and banking and financial stocks."
He further added, "The Bank Nifty index is now near its all-time high, indicating strong sectoral support.
Adding to the upbeat mood, the Indian currency strengthened against the US currency by 31 paise to trade at 85.37 against 85.68 in the last session.
Analysts said that contrary to global jitteriness, bullishness in domestic markets remained entrenched, driven by high demand for large-cap shares and increasing belief in India's economic prospects.
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