Stock Market Today: Nifty, Sensex Post Best Streak Of Weekly Gains In Over Six Months; HDFC Bank Tumbles

• The local currency closed flat at 83.49 against the US dollar.

• It closed at 83.50 on Thursday.

Source: Bloomberg

Indian benchmarks rose for fifth week to record the best streak of weekly gains in over six months. Meanwhile, the indices erased losses during the last leg of the trade on Friday tracking gains in shares of Reliance Industries Ltd., State Bank of India, and Larsen & Toubro Ltd.

The NSE Nifty 50 settled 21.70 points or 0.1% higher at 24,323.85, and the S&P BSE Sensex ended 53.07 points or 0.1% lower at 79,996.60.

Intraday, the Nifty 50 declined 0.55% to 24,168.85, and the Sensex declined 0.71% to 79,778.98.

Indian equity market sentiments remained positive with both the Sensex 30 and the Nifty 50 index reaching a new high this week. On a weekly basis, BSE 30 and Nifty 50 index gained more than 1%, while the BSE Midcap and the BSE Smallcap index outperformed the large-caps index, said Shrikant Chouhan, head equity research, Kotak Securities.

Amid the positive market momentum, most of the sectoral indices reported positive gains this week. BSE IT services performed strongly ahead of the upcoming Q1FY25 earnings season. Oil prices has been gradually inching upwards over the past one month, which needs to be monitored, Chouhan said.

Over the next few weeks, the key events for the market includes macro factors, Union Budget and the Q1FY25 earnings. Individual stocks will be in focus on Q1FY25 earnings and management commentary over coming few weeks, he added.

The benchmarks recorded best winning streak since Dec 11, 2023 when the indices rose for seven consecutive weeks. The Nifty, and Sensex rose 1.30%, and 1.22%, respectively in the week ended on Jul 5, to record straight fifth week gain.

Reliance Industries Ltd., State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Ltd., and Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd. helped the benchmark erase losses.

HDFC Bank Ltd., Infosys Ltd., Titan Co., Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., and Tata Steel Ltd. pressured the benchmark throughout the session.

This week, 11 sectors logged gains and one declined out of 12. The NSE Nifty IT emerged as the top performing sector of the week, while the NSE Nifty PSU Bank declined the most.

Broader indices outperformed. S&P BSE Midcap ended 0.75% higher and S&P BSE Smallcap ended 0.7% higher.

On BSE, 14 sectors advanced, and six declined out of 20. The S&P BSE Oil & Gas rose the most, and the S&P BSE Financial Services declined the most.

Market breadth was skewed in the favour of buyers. Around 2,254 stocks rose, 1,669 fell and 93 remained unchanged on the BSE

The NSE Nifty Pharma rose 1.60% to 20,230, the highest level since its inception on July 1, 2005. It was trading 1.23% higher at 20,435.70 as of 1:57 p.m., as compared to 0.21% decline in the NSE Nifty 50 index.

• Board approves raising up to Rs 175 crore via QIP or other means

Source: Exchange filing