Benchmark indices gained over 1.5% on March 31, 2023. While Sensex surged 1,000 points to over 58,991, broader Nifty50 rallied more than 270 points or 1.6% to over 17,350.
Firm global cues and heavy buying in index heavy weight like Reliance Industries Ltd pulled the indices higher on Friday. Sectorally, the market rally was led by gains in banking and IT stocks.
Led by easing concerns around stress in the banking sector and a rally in tech stocks, the Nasdaq entered bull market territory on Thursday. The Dow Jones rose 0.4%, the S&P 500 gained 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.7% overnight.
Asian peers were trading higher on Friday with the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan jumping 1%, as fears of a global banking crisis receded. Japan's Nikkei gained 1%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index leaped 1.5%.
FIIs and DIIs bought shares worth Rs 1,245 crore and Rs 823 crore, respectively, on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
"Nifty valuations are now reasonable and this has prompted FIIs to turn buyers in the last two days. The market is oversold and this can lead to short-covering and a tactical rally in the near-term," said VK Vijayakumar of Geojit Financial Services.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was the biggest Nifty gainer in today's session as it jumped more than 4% to Rs 2,330 on NSE. The Mukesh Ambani-led company will conduct a shareholder meeting on May 2 to demerge its financial services business.
Nifty appears to have made a short-term bottom. The level of 16,900 was seen as a critical support zone while a decisive break above 17,250 could propel the index to the 17,500-17,600 zone, said technical analysts
The Indian rupee appreciated by 24 paise to 82.10 amid foreign fund inflows and a fall in crude oil prices. The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading around the 102-mark
The recent March edition of the RBI Bulletin gave an optimistic outlook on growth, suggesting that the current estimates for India's GDP growth in FY24 ranging between 6% and 6.5% may be exceeded.
The Indian stock market is keeping a close eye on the Reserve Bank of India's bi-monthly policy meeting next week, where many economists predict a 25-basis point rate hike by the Shaktikanta Das-led Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).
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