On Tuesday, with the weekly expiry of Nifty, the market traded in a range throughout the day and ultimately closed flat. The market opened flat in the morning. Sensex and Nifty fluctuated between positive and negative territory, and moved into the red after a few minutes. The Sensex was trading 55 points lower at 85,512, while the Nifty was down 14 points at around 26,158. Bank Nifty was up 35 points at 59,339. Mixed trading was also seen in mid-cap and small-cap stocks. Despite this, the market was showing a 60% bullish trend. If we look at the sectoral index, today a lot of selling pressure was seen in IT stocks, due to which the index fell by 1.2%. FMCG, realty and healthcare indices also declined. PSU Bank, NBFC, Metals, Oil & Gas and Consumer Durables indices were trading in the green.
On Nifty 50, Coal India, ONGC, Shriram Finance, Bajaj Finance, GRASIM and Power Grid were among the top gainers. Coal India rose 2.3%. Among fallers, Infosys, Asian Paints, TCS, Max Healthcare, HCL Tech, Bharti Airtel and Eternal topped the list. Compared to the previous closing price, Sensex opened 123 points higher at 85,690, Nifty opened 33 points higher at 26,205, and Bank Nifty opened 30 points higher at 59,334. In the currency market, the rupee strengthened by 1 paise against the dollar and opened at 89.64/$. Amid domestic and global cues, market sentiment remains balanced but positive. Although there was some selling in the cash segment by FIIs, their net purchases through derivatives are supporting the market. Domestic funds continue to show strong confidence.
What do FII-DII activities indicate?
After three consecutive days of buying, FIIs made marginal net sales of Rs 457 crore in the cash segment, but their total net buying including index and stock futures stood at Rs 3361 crore. This shows that foreign investors still want to remain invested in the market. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors invested in the market for the 81st consecutive day, making heavy purchases worth about Rs 4058 crore. Domestic flows have now become the biggest support for the market.
Strong signals from US tech stocks
The rise in US tech stocks continued for the third consecutive day. The Dow Jones closed up 225 points, while the Nasdaq gained nearly 125 points. However, Dow futures are looking a bit sluggish ahead of the release of US GDP and IIP data today. GIFT Nifty is also trading around 26230 with a gain of about 30 points, indicating a slightly positive opening.
Commodities are setting new records
The strong rise in the commodity market continues. In the domestic market, gold hit a lifetime high of Rs 1,36,820, while silver hit an all-time high of Rs 2,14,583. In the international market, gold crossed $4500 for the first time, and silver went above $69. Base metals also remained strong, with copper hitting a new lifetime high, aluminum hitting a 44-month high and nickel hitting a 2-month high. Crude oil also rose for the fourth consecutive day, jumping 2% to cross $62.
Corporate and Sector Updates
A lot of activity was seen in the cement sector. The board has approved the merger of ACC and Orient Cement with Ambuja Cement. Under this deal, shareholders will get 328 Ambuja shares for every 100 shares of ACC and 33 Ambuja shares for every 100 shares of Orient Cement. Meanwhile, growth of core industries turned positive in November. Core sector growth increased from -0.1% to 1.8% due to increase in production of cement, steel, coal and fertilizer.
