The 50-stock Nifty settled above the 19500-mark at 19525.55 points, up 100.20 points or 0.5% from the previous session. The 30-stock Sensex gained about 355 points or 0.5% to settle at 65259.45 points.
On the eve of Diwali, four Nifty 50 stocks scaled fresh 52-week highs, and these are Coal India, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Power Grid Corporation of India, and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
While all the sectoral indices ended in the green on the BSE, those topping the list were smallcaps and indices representing PSU companies.
On the Nifty 500 index, as many as 24 stocks scaled fresh 52-week highs. Here are the factors that brightened up Dalal Street on the Diwali day:
PSUs in favour
Shares of public sector companies were leading investors’ preference list, as the S&P BSE PSU, and the CPSE index gained about 1% each. The CPSE index also scaled a 52-week high in trade.
Big gainers in this space were Coal India, Power Finance Corporation, MMTC, Engineers India, and Scooters India, which gained 2-5%.
Coal India shares hit a 7-year high of Rs 336.80, buoyed by its robust quarterly earnings.
“PSUs are clearly the leader of the market. I still feel that PSU banks are quite compelling. They are still trading at four-five times PE, less than one time book value, if I have a two-year perspective. I do not think they have peaked out,” says market veteran Madhusudan Kela.
Smallcaps Rally
While gains were board-based in the market, stocks in the smallcap segment continued to be favoured more than the largecaps.
The S&P BSE Smallcap index gained 1.1% to 38816.08 points. As many as 67 stocks that are part of the index, hit fresh 52-week highs.
Big names here were Marathon Nextgen, Caplin Point Laboratories, Quess Corp, Centrum Capital, Anup Engineering, Anup Engineering, Antony Waste Handling, Carysil, and Global Health, gaining over 5-12%.
Earnings Movers
BSE Ltd shares surged in trade and scaled a lifetime high as the exchange reported robust quarterly earnings, with the net profit rising multifold on the back of a healthy topline and operational performance.
Coal India shares got a boost from its robust earnings, while those of Biocon added 3.3% as profits more than doubled in the September quarter and revenue increased by more than 49%.
Outliers
While the overall sentiment in the market remained positive, there were several stocks which did not join the Diwali party on Dalal Street.
Among index stocks, Apollo Hospitals, Bajaj Finserv, and Britannia Industries ended in the red.
In the broader market, shares of Galaxy Surfactants dropped 3% on reporting a dismal set of quarterly numbers. Similarly, shares of RCF fell 2% on reporting a sharp 81% drop in profit for the September quarter.
“Indian equities are expected to outperform most other global markets in the face of continued geopolitical uncertainties and relatively higher domestic economic growth. The major themes will be domestic consumption and premiumisation, enabling companies to post strong earnings growth aided by margin accretion,” said Sunil shah, director at Khambatta Securities.
Global Markets
Domestic equities bucked the global market trend, as equities in both Europe and Asia ended largely in the red despite gains in the US markets in the previous session. Benchmark indices in Europe ended with more than 1% cuts, and those in key Asian markets ended 0.4-1.8% lower.
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(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)
