New highs on D-Street! Nifty scales Mt 23K, Sensex hits fresh peak

Data on Thursday showed U.S. jobless claims dropped while S&P Global's Flash showed business activity expanded faster than economists forecast in May.

From the Sensex stocks, , , L&T, and opened higher, while M&M, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Maruti, and Infosys opened lower.

Meanwhile, among individual stocks, IndiGo shares rose 3% in early trade after the airline operator's fourth-quarter profit doubled, beating analyst estimates. Additionally, the airline announced plans to introduce business class on some domestic flights this year.

Honasa Consumer (Mamaearth) shares also opened over 7% higher after the Indian skincare firm posted a fourth-quarter profit compared to a loss a year ago, as consumers stocked up on beauty and personal care products

Sector-wise, Bank, Financial Services, Media, and Metal rose 0.3-1%. On the other hand, Nifty Auto, FMCG, Pharma, and Healthcare fell 0.2-0.5%.

Experts View
"The massive short-covering caused by sudden change in FII trade contributed to the sharp rally. It is important to understand that the change in FII stance has been caused by the underperformance of the Hang Seng index which is down 4.1% during the last 5 days. The outperformance of the Hang Seng had led to “ sell India, buy China '' trade during the last one month. It appears that this trade is over and that’s why FIIs have again turned buyers in India," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said, "Nifty can find support at 22,900 followed by 22,850 and 22,800. On the higher side, 23,025 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 23,100 and 23,200."

Global Markets
Wall Street indices declined overnight as strong labour market and business activity data fueled concerns over tighter-for-longer monetary policy.

Asian peers were also lower with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan falling about 1%.

FII/DII Tracker
Foreign institutional investors turned buyers on May 23 as they bought Indian equities worth Rs 4,670.95 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought Rs 146.51 crore worth of equities during the same period.

Crude Oil
Oil prices were steady early in the session on Friday as players took stock of the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest comments on interest rates amid sticky inflation, while firming seasonal U.S. fuel demand lent support.

Brent crude futures were up 1 cent at $81.37 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) futures were down 2 cents at $76.85.

Rupee Strengthens
The Indian rupee gained to the highest in six weeks in early trading on Friday, aided by equity-related inflows even as most Asian currencies declined amid a rise in U.S. bond yields.

The rupee was at 83.1750 against the U.S. dollar as of 09:45 a.m. IST, its highest since April 10, and up 0.1% from its close at 83.28 on Wednesday.

(With inputs from agencies)
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)