Equities soar ahead of Budget, indices touch 2017 highs

Indian equities skyrocketed by more than 3 per cent during the truncated trade week ended Friday, as resurgence of foreign funds, expectation of sops from the upcoming Union Budget and positive global cues enhanced the risk-taking appetite of investors.

Besides, healthy quarterly results and short covering on the back of derivatives expiry saw the key Indian equity indices touch their highest intra-day levels in nearly three months.

The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE augmented by 847.96 points or 3.14 per cent to 27,882.46 points.

Similarly, the wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) climbed by 291.9 points or 3.50 per cent to 8,641.25 points.

"Markets rallied sharply this week after the minor correction seen last week, with the Nifty witnessing hefty gains on all the four trading sessions of the week," Deepak Jasani, Head - Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.

"Market breadth was positive in three out of the four trading sessions of the week."

According to D.K. Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director, SMC Investments and Advisors, domestic markets touched their highest levels in two-and-a-half months during the week's rally.

"The market has ended January futures and options (F&O) higher. Sentiment was aided by optimism ahead of the federal budget and on some better-than-expected quarterly results," Aggarwal said.

"Also, the positive global cues on optimism for stronger US economic growth aided the rally."

Market observers pointed out that Indian equities were boosted further as markets across the globe hit a 19-month high on Wednesday on the back of strong Japanese trade data, stellar European company earnings and hopes that US President Donald Trump will press ahead with a large fiscal spending package.

"Sentiments remained upbeat on reports that Donald Trump and Narendra Modi discussed opportunities to strengthen partnership between the United States and India in broad areas such as the economy and defense," Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, explained.

"Strong earnings from lenders such as HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank raised optimism that the impact of note ban could be less than expected."

In addition, the Indian rupee strengthened by 15 paise to 68.04 against a US dollar from last week's close of 68.19.

In terms of investments, provisional figures from the stock exchanges showed that the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased stocks worth Rs 1,395.73 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought scrips worth Rs 1,919.03 crore.

Figures from the National Securities Depository (NSDL) disclosed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold a total of equity and debt instruments worth Rs 459.39 crore, or $67.53 million from January 23-27.

The top Sensex gainers during the week under review were: HDFC (up 10.42 per cent at Rs 1,370.70), Bajaj Auto (up 5.75 per cent at Rs 2,850.95), HDFC Bank (up 4.79 per cent at Rs 1,294), Gail (up 4.23 per cent at Rs 482.25) and Maruti Suzuki (up 3.63 per cent at Rs 5,921.50).

The losers were: Wipro (down 2.47 per cent at Rs 466.10), Axis Bank (down 2.26 per cent at Rs 472.75), Infosys (down 1.71 per cent at Rs 942.15), Reliance Industries (down 0.83 per cent at Rs 1,025.15), and Sun Pharma (down 0.70 per cent at Rs 639.70).