Stock market today
:
BSE Sensex
and Nifty50, the Indian equity benchmark indices, surged in trade on Wednesday, seeing record closing highs. While BSE Sensex crossed the 80,000 mark in intra-day trade,
Nifty50
also went past the 24,300 level. BSE Sensex closed the day at 79,986.80, up 545 points or 0.69% and just shy of 80,000. Nifty50 ended the day at 24,286.50, up 163 points or 0.67%.
The top BSE Sensex gainers were Adani Ports SEZ, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBI and Power Grid.
The BSE Sensex losers were TCS, Titan Company, RIL, Tata Motors, L&T and Asian Paints.
Indian equities
reached all-time closing highs driven by gains in leading private lender HDFC Bank, as investors anticipated an increase in the stock’s weightage in a crucial global index. HDFC Bank led the gains on both indexes, rising 2.2%, which propelled banks, financials, and private banks to rise between 1.7% and 2.1%.
Investors expect HDFC Bank’s weightage in the MSCI Emerging Markets index to increase to as much as 7.8% in an anticipated rejig in August, up from its current 3.8%.
“The weight increase could be a positive near-term catalyst for the stock as it will lead to passive inflows and trigger further foreign investor ownership,” said analysts at Macquarie according to Reuters. They estimate inflows of $3.2 billion to $4 billion into HDFC Bank due to the expected move and anticipate the bank to support the momentum in benchmarks in the near term.
The more domestically focused small- and mid-caps rose 1.03% and 0.79%, respectively. “Compared to the small- and mid-caps, valuations in the large-cap space are reasonable,” said Poonam Tandon, chief investment officer at IndiaFirst Life Insurance, adding that quarterly results, the national budget, and monsoons will influence the markets in the near term.
In individual stocks, Bharat Heavy Electricals rose 4.76% after Reuters reported that the power equipment maker will likely secure most of the new contracts that Indian power firms will commission, following a government directive.
Power financiers REC and Power Finance Corporation gained 4.28% and 5.65%, respectively, after Bernstein initiated coverage on the stocks with an “outperform” rating. ICICI Lombard added 2.51% after an upgrade from brokerage CLSA.
