Investor wealth shoots to Rs 195 lakh crore as Sensex, Nifty hit new peaks

Market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies reached a fresh lifetime high of Rs 195.66 lakh crore as benchmark indices snapped two sessions of losses on Friday. Today's rally took the market cap on BSE higher by Rs 2.48 lakh crore. In 2020, market wealth of investors rose by Rs 32.49 lakh crore led by a massive rally in the equity market amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Sensex gained 15.75% in 2020 despite falling to its multiyear low in March when coronavirus threat roiled the Indian equity market.

Similarly, Nifty rose 14.90% or 1,813 points during the year to close at a life time high of 13,981.

Investor wealth scaled fresh high today as strong buying in IT stocks ahead of TCS' Q3 earnings propelled benchmarks to fresh lifetime highs amid a bullish trend overseas.

Sensex, Nifty scale record closing highs: Five factors behind the rally

While Sensex touched an all time peak of 48,854 during the session, Nifty scaled record high of 14,367 in trade today. Later, Sensex rose 689 points to close at a record 48,782 and Nifty rallied 209 points to end at its fresh lifetime high of 14,347.

Compared to its four-year low of 25,981 on March 23, 2020,  Sensex has gained 87.76% till date.  Similarly, Nifty has clocked a gain of 88.52% from its March 23 low of 7,610.  

Market breath turned positive with 1734 stocks closing higher against 1,388 ending lower on BSE today. 145 stocks were unchanged.

The bullishness in stock market was also reflected by the number of securities hitting upper and lower circuits on BSE. While 473 shares hit their upper circuits on BSE, 191 stocks fell to their lower circuits today.

Similarly, 481 stocks reached their 52 week highs and 43 shares slipped to their 52 week lows on BSE.

On a weekly basis, Sensex rallied 913.53 points or 1.90 per cent and Nifty soared 328.75 points or 2.34 per cent.

IT shares rise ahead of TCS third quarter earnings

Looking ahead, experts expect market to rise in the near future.

Rusmik Oza, Executive Vice President, Head of Fundamental Research at Kotak Securities said, "Expect market to remain firm going forward because of the start of earnings season from next week. It will be interesting to see how IT stocks react after results as earnings growth of the frontline companies, except for Infosys is expected to be in single digit. The Street is expecting IT stocks to sustain at higher levels because of the potential upward revision in future guidance.

Overall, we expect Nifty 50 to report 19% earnings growth in Q3FY21 with likely upgrades coming in sectors like, automobiles, auto-ancillaries, metals & mining, cement, select banks and pharmaceuticals. Expect Nifty to go anywhere between 14,500 & 15,000 before the Budget."

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities said, "The results season begins today with TCS coming out with its Q3FY21 numbers. As more companies come out with their numbers, the focus could shift from index to individual stocks and peer stocks. There is still no reversal signal for the index. Another 2 odd weeks of gains seem plausible though not at the same pace."