Markets ride on positive cues, Budget outcome; Sensex near 59,450, Nifty shy of 17,750; Banks and financials outperform; Bajaj and HDFC twins, IndusInd, Kotak drive

2 Feb 2022 , 10:03 AM

Indian markets extended their gains on Wednesday’s opening bell as investors cheer the Union Budget 2022 which met the street’s expectations and positive global cues that was spurred by strong earnings of major US tech companies and further reacting to US Federal Reserve’s officials favouring monetary-policy tightening. In the early deals, Sensex was just shy of the 59,500-mark and Nifty 50 jumped near 17,750.

At around 10.02 am, Sensex was trading at 59,422.27 up by 559.7 points or 0.95%. The benchmark has touched an intraday high of 59,441.72.

Nifty 50 traded at 17,740.05 higher by 163.20 points or 0.93%. The benchmark has clocked the day’s high of 17,749.

In broader markets, small-cap stocks outperformed other counterparts. BSE SmallCap jumped by 1.5%. Other market boards traded higher as well.

A broad-based buying spree was witnessed across sectoral indices with Banking stocks emerging as top bulls followed by consumer durables. Auto, IT and Pharma stocks also lifted the performance substantially.

On BSE, the Bankex index skyrocketed nearly 730 points while the Consumer Durables index jumped around 435 points. The Auto, IT and Pharma index climbed near 1% each.

Bulls on Sensex were – Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC, HCL Tech, HDFC Bank, ITC, Wipro, Power Grid and Titan soaring between 1-4%.

Bears on Sensex were – Tech Mahindra (-3%) post Q3 results, while Sun Pharma, HUL and L&T traded between flat to lower.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the country’s Union Budget 2022 under which major push was given to capital expenditure and widening fiscal deficit target. No major reforms were announced in the income tax. However, the overall Budget was “people-friendly”  and “progressive” – which will be beneficial for stock markets.

On the global front, Asian markets opened in the green with ‘Nikkei’ logging gains. Asian markets react positively to US cues. Australia & New Zealand markets were also trading higher by over 1% as the Lunar holidays this week sees most other markets remain closed.

Overnight, on Wall Street, US markets see gains for 3rd day running as Alphabet earnings beat estimates with Dow Jones closing higher by over 270 points & Nasdaq higher by 100 points. Oil prices fall over 3% while the US dollar index falls to 96.25, with bond yields closing flat @ 1.79%.