SENSEX, NIFTY50 resume upmove after a day's pause led by Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries

The Indian equity benchmarks resumed their upmove after a day's pause in the previous session on Friday, February 20. The benchmarks opened on subdued note but staged recovery in late morning deals powered by gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro, NTPC, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever and Axis Bank.

The SENSEX rose as much as 925 points from the day's lowest level and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 25,664 after hitting a low of 25,380.

The SENSEX ended 317 points higher at 82,815 and NIFTY50 index advanced 117 points to close at 25,571.

Asian markets ended lower as caution prevailed among investors after reports suggested that United States issued new threats against Iran, despite the conclusion of Iran-US nuclear talks in Geneva on Tuesday, with Iran saying that it reached an understanding with the US on the main “guiding principles” to resolve their disputes.

Japan's Nikkei fell 1.07%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.1% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index dropped 0.05%.

Sectoral landscape

Back home, 13 of fifteen sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended higher led by the NIFTY PSU Bank index's 1.7% gain. NIFTY Metal, Private Bank, Bank, Realty, Oil & Gas, Auto, Bank and Financial Services indices also rose between 0.4%-1.25%.

On the flipside, NIFTY IT index dropped 1%.

Broader markets ended on a mixed note as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 0.5% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index declined 0.1%.

Shares of capital goods companies witnessed strong buying interest The measure of capital goods companies on the BSE advanced as much as 2.3% or 1,391 points to hit an intraday high of 69,970 led by gains in Bharat Electronics, ABB, Siemens, Cummins India, CG Power, Hitachi Energy and Hindustan Aeronautics.

Capital goods stocks came under buying interest after heavy electrical equipment maker ABB reported strong order book at the end of December quarter igniting investor optimism towards the companies in the capital goods space, analysts noted.

ABB recorded the highest fourth quarter orders in the last five years, with total orders at ₹4,096 crore growing 52% due to a strong development in the base business with additional support from the timing of large orders. The quarter benefited from large orders in the data centre, automotive, building and infra, railways and metals segments.

NIFTY50 top gainers and losers

Hindalco was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock advanced 3.21% to close at ₹935. NTPC, Larsen & Toubro, SBI Life, Hindustan Unilever, Coal India, Power Grid, Tata Steel and Nestle India also rose between 1.33%-2.64%.

On the other hand, Kwality Wall's, Eternal, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Grasim, HCL Tech and Wipro were among top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,515 shares ended higher while 1,630 closed lower on the NSE.