Sensex, Nifty: 5 reasons why shares are rising today

Heavy buying in banking and financial names and index heavyweight Reliance Industries pushed domestic largecap indices Sensex and Nifty higher on Thursday, the day of March series futures and options expiry, ahead of extended holiday. There is optimism globally that the US Fed will be cutting policy rates three times this year, irrespective of upcoming inflation data, thanks to the recent dovish commentary from the US central bank. Back home, a couple of agencies have upped India's GDP estimates for the ongoing financial year; institutional inflows are robust, especially this month; and technical charts are hinting at further upside.

At 14:38 pm, the BSE Sensex was up 1,110 points or 1.52 per cent, at 74,106. The NSE Nifty was quoting at 22,495, up 372 points or 1.68 per cent. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies climbed Rs 5,08,965 crore to Rs 3,88,73,865 crore from Rs 3,83,64,900 crore in the previous session.

Banks, RIL do heavy lifting
While a total of 29 of 30 Sensex stocks were trading higher, a couple of banks such as ICICI Bank Ltd and HDFC Bank Ltd, the Bajaj duo: Bajaj Finance Ltd and Bajaj Finserv Ltd; and the index heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd that contributed most to Thursday's rise. Bajaj Finserv gained 3.75 per cent while Bajaj Finance added 3.51 per cent. ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank added up to 1.6 per cent. RIL was up 0.4 per cent at Rs 3,000 level.

Asian markets rise tracking Wall St
Asian markets including that of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan gained up to 1.6 per cent, tracking an overnight rise in US stock indices that settled 0.8-1.2 per cent higher, ahead of Friday's inflation data. Japan was an exception, falling over 1 per cent on hawkish BOJ. Stock exchanges in India, the US and a dozen other markets will be shut on Friday on account of Good Friday.

Technical strength, F&O expiry
Ahead of the session, Sameet Chavan of Angel One had said that the Nifty level of 22,200 was a pivotal level to monitor and that a sustained breach beyond this point could catalyse a robust upward movement, establishing a sturdy foundation for the market in the new month. Nifty breached that level in the morning trade itself. It hit a high of 22,352.20 level intraday.

Strong institutional flows
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services the primary catalyst for the ongoing rally is the huge liquidity flows into the market.

"DIIs have pumped in a massive Rs 24,373 crores into the market during the last seven trading days imparting resilience to the market. Since flows into the market continue and are showing no signs of slowdown, a scramble for high quality stocks with good growth prospects is likely," he said. Data showed FPIs are net buyers of Rs 31,056 crore worth equities in March.

GDP upgrades

S&P Global recently upgraded India's FY25 GDP growth forecast by 40 basis points to 6.8 per cent. Now Morgan Stanley has upped India's GDP growth forecast for FY25 to 6.8 per cent.

"We upgrade GDP growth to 6.8 per cent for F2025e from 6.5 per cent, while we expect F2024 growth at 7.9 per cent. Strength and stability are the hallmarks of the cycle with macro-stability outlook remaining benign. A shallow easing cycle can be in the offing, however, we remain watchful of stronger-than-expected growth," MS said.