What happened with the Share Market Today

Equity benchmark Sensex soared nearly 200 points, extending their gains for the second consecutive day in line with rising in global peers. The gains in indices were led by metal, select IT, and banking stocks. However, the market pared some of its gains on account of profit booking after US Dow Future dropped over 150 points or half percent and European markets turned into negative territory ahead of US Non-farm payroll data to be announced today. On the domestic front, rising oil prices and September Services PMI growth slumped to a 6-month low have dampened the market sentiment.

Sensex gained 157 points or 0.3% to close at 58222 while it intra-day gained by 1% or 513 points to a high of 58579. Similarly, Nifty advance 58 points or 0.3% to close at 17332 while it intra-day gained by 0.9% or 154 points to touch a high of 17429.  Jindal Steel, Coal India, Hindalco, Tata Steel, HCL Tech, and Infosys were major gainers among the Nifty stocks while Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC, and Bajaj Finance were among the major losers. India Vix slipped over 1% to close at below 20.

Among the global markets, US, Asian and European markets gained 2-3% in the last two days on the expectation that the Federal Reserve will soften its hawkish stance sooner than expected. Moreover, US 10-year and 2-year Bond yields fell nearly 10% from the recent peak along with US Dollar Index declining to a 2-week low at below 111. In the domestic factor, strong micro, better than expected monsoon, and impressive Q2 business update by corporates and FIIs turning net buyers in the last two days had a positive impact on market sentiment. However, oil prices surged by 10% from a recent low of $85/bbl to $94/bbl, and rating agency Fitch downgraded UK ratings from stable to negative were major concerns in the global markets.

Northbound journey on metal stocks on account of increased base metal price on LME after the news that the London Metal Exchange stopped trading copper and zinc metals produced by Russia’s Ural Mining & Metallurgical and its Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant. Nifty Metal Index surged over 3% today. Metal major Hindalco surged 5% to close at Rs413. Vedanta, Hindustan Zinc, SAIL, Tata Steel, and Nalco gained between 2-5%.

Tech stocks witnessed fresh buying ahead of quarterly results. Tech majors, TCS, Wipro, and Infosys will announce Q2 results next week. Infosys gained 2% to close at Rs1455. Persistent Systems climbed up by 8% to close at Rs3553. Coforge, Mphasis, HCL Tech, LTI, and Wipro gained 1-4%.

Sugar stocks recorded smart gains after the media report that sugar exports jumped 57 percent to 109.8 lakh tonnes during the 2021-22 marketing year ending September, making the country world’s 2nd largest exporter of sugar. Balrampur Chini gained 3% to close at Rs360 and Renuka Sugar advanced 5% to close at Rs60. Praj Industries soared 7% to close a record high of Rs444 amid a hefty volume of 80 lakh shares traded on the NSE.

Banking stocks witnessed a mixed bag. ICICI Bank gained 2% to close at Rs885 and Axis Bank advanced nearly 2% to close at Rs755. However, private bank major HDFC Bank slipped by 1437, and Indusind Bank declined 1.55 to close at Rs1201 on account of profit booking. FMCG stocks like Hindustan Unilever slipped 2% to close at Rs2614. However, ITC, Tata Consumers, and United Breweries gained between 1-2%.

Technical Outlook:
The nifty index opened the gap up by over 100 points and witnessed range-bound movement for the most part of the session. It witnessed some profit booking at higher zones and slipped in the last hour to close near its day’s low. It formed a small-bodied Bearish candle on a daily scale and started making higher lows from the last three sessions. Now, it has to hold above 17300 zones for an up move towards 17442 and 17500 zones whereas supports can be seen at 17167 and 17071 zones.