Sensex, Nifty snap 3-day losing streak; PSU banks lead broad rally

Snapping the three-day losing streak, Indian equity markets are witnessing a broad-based rally on Friday despite the persistent concerns around the ongoing Israel-Iran tensions showing no signs of improvement.

 

Last checked, the benchmark BSE Sensex was trading at 82,110.67, up 748.80 points or 0.92 per cent, and the NIfty50 was up 224.55 points, or 0.91 per cent at 25,017.80 levels.

 

All the major sectoral indices were trading higher, led by the PSU Bank index up over 2 per cent. The public sector bank (PSB) stocks were rallying after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released final guidelines on project finance loans that were less strict than previous suggestions.

 

All 11 constituents of the Nifty PSU Bank index were trading higher led by Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Central Bank, and State Bank of India up over 1 per cent each. 

 

Among others, the Nifty Realty index, Bank, Energy, Metal, Auto IT, Oil & Gas, and Consumer Durables rose up to 2 per cent.

 

Following a sharp plunge in Thursday's session, the Nifty Midcap 100 witnessed a rebound rising over 1 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap index around 0.8 per cent.

 

Prashanth Tapse, senior vice president for research at Mehta Equities, investors should not expect a quick end to the Middle-East conflict, while volatility and wild swings are likely to become a new normal. 

 

According to Srikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities, as long as the market is trading between 24,700/81200 and 24,900/81600, range-bound activity is likely to continue. On the higher side, a successful breakout above 24,900/81600 could take the market to 25000-25050/82000-82200. On the other hand, breaking out of 24,700/81200 could increase the selling pressure. Below this level, the market could retest the levels of 24,500–24,475/80500-80300.

 

"The strategy should be to take a long trade if Nifty crosses 25000. Keep a stop loss at 24800 for the same.  On the other side, expect further weakness below 24700, however, in that case, we need to keep a stop loss at 24900 for the same. However, a close below 24700 would be negative in the short term," Chouhan said.