Sensex Ends 363 Points Higher; Nifty Above 22,450; Indus Towers Jumps 8%

Sensex Today: Market ended higher for the third consecutive session on April 1 with Nifty around 22,450.

At close, the Sensex was up 363.20 points or 0.49 per cent at 74,014.55, and the Nifty was up 135.10 points or 0.61 per cent at 22,462.00. About 3015 shares advanced, 572 shares declined, and 112 shares unchanged.

Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Adani Ports, Shriram Finance and Divis Labs are among the top gainers on the Nifty, while losers are Eicher Motors, Titan Company, Bajaj Auto, LTIMindtree and Nestle.

Except Auto, all other sectoral indices ended in the green with metal, power, capital goods, healthcare, realty up 1-4 per cent, while oil & gas, Information Technology, bank up 0.5 per cent each.

The BSE midcap index rose 1.6 per cent and the smallcap index gained nearly 3 percent.

Market View | Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services

The undertone of the market is bullish and there is momentum in the market. The market has been showing signs of consolidation but the spurt in Nifty by 322 points on the last 2 trading days indicates that the upward momentum can sustain.

There are reports of mutual funds introducing restrictions on redemptions from the smallcaps schemes. This is in response to the ‘ frothy’ valuation in this segment and the concerns expressed by the regulator. The consequence of this action would be higher flows of funds into the largecaps, which, in turn, can lift the largecaps. So, watch out for largecaps in automobiles, capital goods, financials and select pharma which are likely to post good Q4 numbers.

The RBI monetary policy meet scheduled for April 3 to 5 is likely to keep rates unchanged and, therefore, is unlikely to impact the market.

Global markets

Asian stocks were seen trading on a positive note after China reported expansion in its manufacturing activity in March, a first since September. Hang Seng, Shanghai and Kospi were up over 0.5 per cent each.

Later tonight, the US market shall react to the latest Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) reading, which rose 0.3 per cent month-over-month on Friday. Dow and Nasdaq futures were up over 100 points in post-market deals.