Budget momentum drives Sensex, Nifty to record highs

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The Sensex on February 3 scaled a record high of 50,526.39 while the Nifty recorded an all-time high of 14,868.85 as economic recovery hopes improved on the back of growth-driven Budget, positive global cues and healthy FII buying continued to please investors.

Sensex witnessed mild profit-booking at higher levels but managed to end the day at a fresh closing peak of 50,255.75, up 458 points or 0.92% while Nifty rose 142 points to end the day’s trade at another record high of 14,789.95. The indices have surged about 8.5% in three consecutive sessions.

The broader market outperformed the benchmarks. The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.38 per cent and the BSE Small-Cap index gained 1.47 per cent.

Commenting on market closing Jay Thakkar, Vice President & Head of Equity Research, Marwadi Shares & Finance said that, “the overall momentum for the short to medium-term is still positive for Nifty, Bank nifty. The only thing is that Nifty has near tern hurdle at around 15,000 which is the psychological math and Bank Nifty has a psychological resistance at around 35,000 right. In today’s trading session, of course, the defensive came back and FMCG stocks, IT stocks, and the pharma contributed quite a lot. Pharma is one place where the momentum is on the positive side. On the downside, the support level for the short term will be somewhere around say 14,600 to 14,650 range on in the medium term.”

He further added that tomorrow’s trade market would be sideways with a positive bias.

The Union Budget 2021 unveiled on 1 February 2021 supported all the essential aspects of growth by an increase in government spending without an increase in indirect taxes. The Budget offered huge stimulus to infrastructure, Capex, healthcare and boosted the credit flow by taking out the toxic assets of the banking system. Increased FDI limit in insurance improved the overall outlook of the sector.

IndusInd Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, zooming around 8 per cent, followed by PowerGrid, Dr. Reddy’s, Sun Pharma, NTPC, and Axis Bank.

On the other hand, UltraTech Cement, Maruti, ITC, Kotak Bank, and Asian Paints were among the losers.

“Domestic equities continued to remain in the grip of bulls and broader indices made fresh record highs today,” said Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities.

Optimism, created after the announcement of bold measures in the Union Budget continued to attract investors. Favorable global cues also supported the market rally. Notably, the market cap of the Indian market is just a fraction away from surpassing Rs 200 trillion levels, he added.

Growing optimism among investors after bold and pro-growth Budget helped the market to rebound sharply in the last three days, he said, adding that the underlying strength of the domestic market remains intact.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo ended with gains, while Shanghai was in the red.

Stock exchanges in Europe were also trading on a positive note in early deals.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.36 per cent higher at USD 58.01 per barrel.

(With inputs from PTI)