Banking stocks lift Sensex, Nifty to new heights in July opening

Top gainers and losers

The Nifty breadth was skewed in favour of the bulls with 31 stocks ending in the green while the remaining 19 in the red. The top gainers at the closing time were , , , and while the top losers were , , , (SBI) and .

Of the 16 sectoral indices on the NSE, 14 ended in the green and just closed with declines. Nifty IT led the charge along with banks and financial stocks. While the former closed with 2% gains, Nifty Financial Services was up nearly 1%. The losers were Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Realty which were down by up to 0.76%.

Expert Take

Commenting on the day's action, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said the domestic market sustained its upward momentum, with a reduction in US PCE inflation raising hopes for a rate cut by the Fed in September. "This optimism contributed to the strong performance of IT stocks. We anticipate this trend will persist in the near term due to expectations of a rebound in discretionary spending. Investors are now focusing on upcoming US job data and the Fed Chair's speech for further indication on interest rates," Nair said.

Market capitalisation of all the BSE listed companies increased by Rs 344,798 crore.

Global Markets

Major Asian markets also traded positive. China's Shanghai Composite closed up by 0.92% while Singapore's FTSE Straits Times Index fell 0.17%. Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.12% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended flat albeit with slightly positive bias.

Major European headline indices were also trading positive around 4 pm India time. UK's FTSE was up by 0.32% while Germany's Dax was higher by 0.37%. Spain's IBEX and Stoxx 600 gained by up to 0.92% while French CAC 40 was the leader with 1.51% gains.

Currency Watch

The Indian rupee closed weaker on Monday as broad-based interbank dollar demand pressured the currency even as the greenback weakened. The rupee ended at 83.4375 against the US dollar, lower than the close of 83.3825 in the previous session, Reuters reported. The rupee had gained last week aided by portfolio inflows, including into the country's sovereign bonds on account of their inclusion in the JPMorgan emerging market debt index.

The dollar index was down 0.1% at 105.6 and most Asian currencies ticked up, with the Indonesian rupiah up 0.3% and leading gains.

Interbank dollar bids had pushed the rupee to an intra-day low of 83.4650 earlier in the session but a decline in the dollar index helped it trim losses, traders said.

"The market is largely driven by flows at this point ... without which, the rupee should see sideways price action in a 5-10 paisa intraday range," this report said quoting a foreign exchange trader at a private bank.

Crude Impact

Crude oil prices were trading higher on Monday with US WTI oil contracts trading at $81.84, up by $0.30 or 0.37% while Brent oil futures were hovering near $85.32, higher by $0.32 or 0.38%.

On the MCX, the July Crude Oil futures were trading at Rs 6,836 per BBL, up by Rs 31 or 0.46%.