Sensex: Market Watch: Sensex and Nifty continue their ascent; what drives the rally?

Welcome to ETMarkets Watch, the show about stocks, market trends and money making ideas. I’m Nandini Sanyal and here are the headlines so far.

Investors are richer by Rs 2.5 lakh cr while Sensex increases by 514 pts on Thursday; Nifty ends above 17,200
Airtel Demonstrates Cloud Gaming’s First Experience on 5G Network
M&M suspends production for 7 days due to shortage of chips and sees production reduced by 25%
India’s gasoline demand hits record high

And
The organization of electricity producers urges the MP Power Management Company to release 70% of contributions of Rs 2,433-cr

Let’s take a quick look at what happened in Dalal Street today.

The bulls were back on Dalal Street, pushing benchmarks higher after a day’s hiatus. Strong buying stocks in information technology, consumer goods and durable goods pushed markets higher, while investors posted profits in autos and some banks. Traders avoided concerns from auto sectors over the buzz of strong demand in the upcoming holiday season. BSE Sensex climbed around 515 points to settle above 57,850, just 40 points below the day’s high. Nifty 50 gained around 160 points to close at 17,234, around 20 points below its all-time high.

The larger markets outperformed as they walked alongside the benchmarks, with the BSE mid and small cap indices each adding up to one percent. The India VIX fear gauge has increased slightly.

On the BSE Sensex, TCS led the winners, surging more than 3%. HUL and Ultratech Cement, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Nestlé and Kotak Mahindra Bank earned between 2 and 3 percent each. Titan, IndusInd Bank, Reliance, NTPC, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, and HDFC each added one percent. On the other hand, M&M lost more than 2%, while Bajaj Auto lost one percent. Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, Airtel and SBI have also moved into the red. Over 340 stocks reached the upper circuit limits for the day, while over 175 stocks reached the lower circuit. About 115 stocks tested their 52 week highs during the session.

We have Vinod Nair from Geojit Financial Services to share his take on today’s action and the way forward:
Welcome to the show sir:
1. The markets were back on track today. What motivated the rally?
2. Larger markets consistently outperform benchmarks. What does he suggest?

We also caught up with Ashis Biswas from CapitalVia Global Research to decode the technical tables for you.
1. Nifty hit the 17,200 mark again today. Where is he going now?
2. What do you think of Nifty Bank?

Asian markets ended the day mixed. Major European markets were trading mostly higher in the early hours of trading. US equity futures were higher, pointing to a positive start for US stocks later in the day.

That’s all for the moment. Check out ETMarkets.com for all the news, market analysis, investment strategies, and dozens of stock recommendations. Enjoy your evening. Bye Bye!