Sensex hits 78,000; Nifty crosses 23,700
During intraday trading on Tuesday, benchmark stock market indices reached new highs. The S&P BSE Sensex crossed 78,000 for the first time, while the NSE Nifty50 set a career high of 23,710.45.
Both indices opened higher in early trade, helped by increases in financial services and banking sectors.
The Nifty Financial Services index surged 1.89%, while Nifty Bank rose over 1.8%, making them the session’s top sectoral gainers.
Ajit Mishra, Senior Vice President of Research at Religare Broking, credited the market’s rise mostly to the robust performance of banking stocks, despite the absence of any big domestic drivers.
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Nifty 50 rises over 11% since June 4 low
The benchmark Nifty 50 index has risen by more than 11% since its low on June 4, fueled by a post-election bounce.
Domestically focused small-caps also reached new highs, up more than 1% early in the session, led by gains in Amara Raja Energy and Mobility. However, they reduced their gains and were up 0.3% later in the day.
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Amar Raja’s shares surge by 20%; hit record high
Amara Raja Energy and Mobility’s share price rose 20% to Rs 1,656, reaching an all-time high on June 25, when the battery producer announced a technical license arrangement with China’s Gotion High-Tech.
As part of the arrangement, Amara Raja Advanced Cell Technologies Pvt Ltd (ARACT) will license Gotion High-Tech’s LFP technology for lithium-ion cells from its unit, GIB EnergyX.
Following the development, a few brokerages issued calls on the counter. For example, JPMorgan has assigned a neutral call to Amara Raja with a target price of Rs 1,210 per share, noting the company’s recent technical licensing arrangement with Gotion as a positive step.
The agreement is expected to speed up the building of Amara Raja’s gigafactory and increase investor confidence in the company’s ability to meet its 16 GWh capacity objective.
Neeraj Dewan, Director at Quantum Securities, told Reuters that small- and mid-cap stocks would continue to undergo stock-specific fluctuations, particularly in the run-up to earnings season.
Meanwhile, Bandhan Bank slid 2% after the Reserve Bank of India named a director to the bank’s board, which was widely interpreted as strengthening monitoring of the bank’s operations.
