Index heavyweight Reliance Industries led from the front as the equity benchmarks jump 1% to close at five-month highs on Friday.
RIL jumped 2.8% on a day the Sensex zoomed 629.07 points, or 1.02%, to 62,501.69. The Nifty50 surged 178.20, or 0.97%, to close at 18,499.35 points. The indices closed with gains in four of the five sessions this week, with the Sensex and Nifty registering weekly gains of 1.25% and 1.63%, respectively.
Investor wealth surged by Rs 2.34 trillion on Friday and Rs 6.07 trillion during the week, with the BSE’s total mcap now standing at Rs 282.7 trillion.
Most BSE sectoral indices ended in the green, with IT, Teck, FMCG, Realty, and Metals rising over 1%. Oil & gas, Power and Utilities were the ones to close marginally down. A total of 1,907 stocks advanced on the BSE while 1,600 declined.
“Indian equities moved higher, supported by positive handover from the US markets and a strong upmove in index heavyweights. Consistent FII buying supported the overall positivity. After consolidating for the last few days, the Nifty has managed to surpass the resistance of 18,450. We expect it to touch its previous lifetime high in coming weeks. With the results season nearing its end, the focus will now shift to macro data, US debt negotiations and upcoming central bank policy meetings,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head (retail research), Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
ONGC was the biggest laggard in the Nifty pack, down 1.2%, with Grasim falling 1% after reporting an 88% decline in the Q4 profit. NTPC and Power Grid were other laggards.
Friday also marked the expiry of Sensex and Bankex derivatives contracts, which were relaunched on May 15 with lower lot sizes. According to BSE data, the turnover stood at Rs 17,345 crore (Rs 17,316 crore in options and Rs 29 crore in futures) during the second weekly expiry.
“The activity being witnessed stands testimony to the fact that there is a growing interest and utility of these new products for participants,’’ said Sundararaman Ramamurthy, MD and CEO of BSE. On Friday, a total of 278,341 contracts traded in the exchange through 98,242 trades.
Prior to expiry, the total open interest stood at 20,700 contracts (those in active positions, yet to close/expire) with a value of Rs 1,280 crore.
“These numbers are still lukewarm, even if one were to consider the fact that these are early days. Many brokerages are yet to offer the BSE derivatives products, and many are still used to the Nifty, which is why the BSE is finding it tough to find takers,” said a market strategist with a brokerage, adding that the BSE should increase awareness and not think of competition at the moment.
