Fall in daily caseload and satisfactory vaccination overshadows concerns about high crude prices and weak rupee
Sensex and Nifty scaled fresh intra-day records in opening trade on Monday, tracking gains in heavyweights Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and HDFC, as Covid-19 fatalities went down to a 76-day low at 979 deaths in 24 hours, according to a Union health ministry update.
Meanwhile, the rupee fell 6 paise to 74.26 against the dollar in early trade.
After touching a lifetime high of 53,126.73, the 30-share BSE index was trading 142.85 points or 0.27 per cent higher at 53,067.89 in initial deals. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty was trading 42.25 points or 0.27 per cent higher at 15,902.60. It touched a lifetime intra-day peak of 15,915.65 in the opening session.
Asian Paints was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 1 per cent, followed by Dr Reddy’s, NTPC, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries, while Titan, TCS, UltraTech Cement, Bharti Airtel and L&T were among laggards. In the previous session, the 30-share index Sensex closed 226.04 points or 0.43 per cent higher at record 52,925.04, and Nifty advanced 69.90 points or 0.44 per cent to 15,860.35.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 678.84 crore on Friday, as per provisional exchange data.
According to Binod Modi, the head of strategy at Reliance Securities, domestic markets look modestly good as of now. “A sharp fall in daily caseload and satisfactory ramp up in vaccination overshadowed concerns emerging from higher crude prices and weakening rupee,” he said, adding that better-than-expected earnings performance of companies in the fourth quarter of financial year 2021 has also supported the market’s uptick.
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo were trading with losses in mid-session deals, while Brent crude was trading 0.17 per cent lower at $75.25 per barrel.