Nifty above 21,450 mark; PSU banks in demand

The headline equity benchmarks traded with modest gains in the mid-afternoon trade. The Sensex and the Nifty, both, attained record high levels in morning trade. The Nifty traded above the 22,450 mark. PSU bank shares rallied for the second day in a row.

At 14:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 343.87 points or 0.47% to 73,995.22. The Nifty 50 index rose 133.75 points or 0.61% to 22,460.65.

The Sensex and Nifty clocked an all-time high of 74,254.62 and 22,529.95, respectively in morning trade.

The broader market outperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 1.45% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 2.64%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 3,156 shares rose and 700 shares fell. A total of 147 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

Indias forex reserves rose $140 million during the week ended March 22 to touch its all-time high of $642.631 billion, according to the latest RBI data. This is the fifth consecutive week of a jump in the overall reserves.

For the week ended March 22, the foreign currency assets decreased by $123 million to $568.264 billion. Gold reserves rose $347 million to $51.487 billion during the week. The special drawing rights (SDRs) were down by $57 million to $18.219 billion, the RBI said.

Indias reserve position with the IMF was also down by $27 million to $4.662 billion in the reporting week, the RBI data showed.

Meanwhile, the combined Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) increased by 6.7% (provisional) in February 2024 as compared to the Index of February 2023. The final growth rate of Index of Eight Core Industries for November 2023 is revised to 7.9%. The cumulative growth rate of ICI during April to February, 2023-24 is 7.7% (provisional) as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty PSU Bank Index gained 1.33% to 7,100.60. The index rallied 3.81% in the two trading session.

Indian Overseas Bank (up 6.59%), Punjab & Sind Bank (up 5.44%), Central Bank of India (up 5.27%), UCO Bank (up 5.17%), Bank of Maharashtra (up 4.49%), Bank of India (up 3.58%), Indian Bank (up 1.7%), Union Bank of India (up 1.6%), Punjab National Bank (up 1.29%) and Canara Bank (up 1.15%) advanced.

Numbers to Track:

MCX Gold futures for 5 April 2024 settlement rose 1.53% to Rs 68,712.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.05% to 104.50.

The United States 10-year bond yield rose 0.07% to 4.198.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for June 2024 settlement added 30 cents or 0.34% to $87.30 a barrel.

Stocks in spotlight:

NCC rallied 4.13% after the company said that it has received new orders worth Rs 3,086 crore in the month of March, 2024.

Imagicaaworld Entertainment jumped 6.16% after the company announced the execution of definitive agreements for acquisition of 4 high quality parks operated by Malpani Group.

Datamatics Global Services zoomed 6.79% after the company announced the acquisition of Dextara Digital, a premier provider of Salesforce services.

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