SENSEX, NIFTY50 close at fresh 52-week highs on Diwali led by Reliance, Bharti Airtel

The Indian equity benchmarks closed at fresh 52-week highs on Monday, October 20 on occasion of Diwali as investor sentiment got a boost from better than estimated corporate earnings in the second quarter of current financial year.

The SENSEX soared as much as 704 points to hit 52-week high of 84,656.56 and NIFTY50 index touched fresh 52-week high of 25,926 led by gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and Tata Consultancy Services.

The SENSEX ended 411 points higher at 84,363 and NIFTY50 index climbed 133 points to close at 25,843.

Strong Q2 earnings

Analysts say that better than anticipated second quarter earnings by Indian companies is leading to surge in equity markets. On Friday, the country's most valuable company, Reliance Industries, reported a consolidated net profit of ₹18,165 crore in the second quarter of the current financial year, marking an increase of 10% from ₹16,563 crore in the same period last year.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-backed company’s revenue from operations jumped 10% to ₹2,58,898 crore in the July-September period from ₹2,35,481 crore in the year-ago period.

The company on a consolidated basis reported a strong operational performance, as its operating profit, also known as EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), jumped 18% to ₹45,885 crore and its operating profit margin expanded by 120 basis points to 18%.

Private sector lenders also reported strong set of earnings in September quarter. HDFC Bank on Saturday reported 18% YoY jump in the net profit for the Q2FY26 quarter.

During Q2FY26, the bank's net interest income steadily grew by 0.4% QoQ and 4.8% YoY at ₹31,500 crore, while the non-interest income slumped sharply by 34% sequentially at ₹114 crore.

On the balance sheet front, the average advances for the quarter jumped 9% YoY at ₹27.9 lakh crore, while the average deposits grew by 15.1% YoY to ₹27.1 lakh crore. The growth in advances was primarily driven by mid-small market lending at 19.4%, followed by retail and corporate sector growth at 7.4% and 6.4% respectively.

Punjab National Bank, the country's leading state-run lender, on Saturday informed exchanges that it wrote back provisions worth ₹639 crore for bad loans against provisioning of ₹199 crore in the same period last year sending the stock up as much as 4.08%.

ICICI Bank and YES Bank also reported better than expected earnings over the weekend boosting the overall market sentiment.

FII turn net buyers

The bullish sentiment also got a boost from buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs). FIIs bought shares worth ₹309 crore on Friday while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth ₹1,527 crore.

The FIIs have so far this month bought shares worth ₹6,480 crore, and for the calendar year, they have been net sellers to the tune of ₹1,48,040 crore, according to the data from National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

Sectoral landscape

Buying was visible across sectors as all 11 of fifteen sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the NIFTY PSU Bank index's nearly 3% gain. NIFTY Oil & Gas, Private Bank, Pharma, IT, Bank and Realty indices also rose between 0.5-1.4% each.

On the other hand, select auto, financial services, FMCG and metal stocks witnessed selling pressure on account of profit booking.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 0.75% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.46%.

NIFTY50 gainers and losers

Reliance Industries was among top gainers in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 3.61% to close at ₹1,467.90 after it reported its second quarter earnings.

Cipla, Bajaj Finserv, Shriram Finance, Dr Reddy's Labs, Axis Bank, State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel also rose between 1.9-4%.

On the flipside, ICICI Bank was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 3.03% to close at ₹1,393. Mahindra & Mahindra, JSW Steel, Eternal, Adani Ports and Power Grid were also among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,530 shares were advancing while 1,740 closed lower on the BSE.