Sensex, Nifty stage strong comeback amid easing inflation & buying in telecom stocks
Mumbai: Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded sharply by about 1 per cent on Friday, propelled by bargain hunting in telecommunication, tech and consumer durable stocks amid encouraging domestic inflation data.
After falling 1,207.14 points in morning trade, the 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex recovered all the lost ground later and jumped 843.16 points or 1.04 per cent to settle at 82,133.12. During the day, it surged 923.96 points or 1.13 per cent to 82,213.92.
The NSE Nifty climbed 219.60 points or 0.89 per cent to settle at 24,768.30 after falling 367.9 points in intra-day trade.
On the weekly front, the BSE benchmark jumped 623.07 points or 0.76 per cent, and the Nifty climbed 90.5 points or 0.36 per cent.
Among the 30-share Sensex blue-chip pack, Bharti Airtel, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Titan, UltraTech Cement, HCL Technologies, and Power Grid were the biggest gainers.
On the other hand, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, JSW Steel and Bajaj Finserv were the laggards. Contrary to the overall market trend, the BSE smallcap gauge declined 0.29 per cent, and the midcap index dipped 0.08 per cent.
“Markets quickly bounced back from its weak opening and surged ahead in intra-day trade as moderating inflation enthused investors to resort to value buying in banking, IT and telecom stocks,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.
Among sectoral indices, telecommunication jumped 2.13 per cent, teck (1.32 per cent), consumer durables (1.14 per cent), FMCG (1.07 per cent), bankex (0.81 per cent), and IT (0.57 per cent). Metal, services, commodities and industrials were the losers.
Retail inflation declined in November to 5.48 per cent and came within the Reserve Bank’s comfort zone mainly due to easing food prices, creating headroom for a rate cut at the central bank’s rate-setting panel meeting under new Governor Sanjay Malhotra in February.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based headline inflation was at 6.21 per cent in October and 5.55 per cent in November 2023.
