Sensex touches 80,000 mark on strong FII comeback in festive season

Indian stock markets rallied as Sensex approached the 80,000 mark and Nifty gained amid sustained foreign institutional buying. Strong corporate earnings and large-cap valuations supported sentiment, while IT and banking stocks advanced. Metals, chemicals and realty sectors witnessed selling pressure

Mumbai: The headline index, BSE Sensex, touched the 80,000 mark on Friday in the morning trade amid strong foreign institutional investors (FIIs) buying during the festive season. The Sensex rose as much as 734.66 points or nearly 0.92 per cent to an intraday high of 79,959.48, compared with its previous close of 79,310.01.

The 30-share index had opened at 79,413.66 and touched an intraday low of 79,016.05. Similarly, Nifty gained 136.95 points or 0.56 per cent to 24,673.55 after opening at 24,538.20 against the previous close of 24,536.60.

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During the session, the index surged 1.17 per cent or 285.5 from an intraday low to 24,673.55 by 10:35 am. Market sentiment was boosted by sustained foreign fund inflows. FIIs remained net buyers for the fifth consecutive trading session and purchased equities worth Rs 14,974 crore. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) continued to book profits and emerged as net sellers with outflows of Rs 10,444 crore.

According to experts, it is important to recognise the fact that this ongoing rally has fundamental support from impressive earnings growth which has come better-than-expected. A significant factor which investors should understand is that this rally is driven by large-caps which had become attractively valued.

“Note that yesterday while the Sensex rallied 2.6 per cent, the Smallcap 100 index crawled by a measly 0.67 per cent. It is evident where money is going. For financials, tech and auto stocks there is more upside,” they added.

Sectorally, information technology stocks led the rally with the Nifty IT index rising 1.32 per cent amid global tech selloff. Private banks also witnessed strong buying, pushing the Nifty Private Bank index up 0.72 per cent. In addition, consumer durables, financial services and pharmaceutical indices gained up to 0.38 per cent. Auto stocks were marginally higher, while healthcare indices also traded in positive territory.

On the downside, selling pressure was visible in metals, chemicals and real estate stocks. The Nifty Metal index were trading more than 1 per cent lower, followed by Nifty Chemicals which fell 1.34 per cent and Nifty Realty, which lost 1.26 per cent.