Nifty, Sensex Gain for the Sixth-Straight Session; Banking Stocks Lead the Pack

Nifty and Sensex surged for the sixth-consecutive session on March 24. While the Nifty crossed 23,500 mark, Sensex soared by 900 points.

As of 11:20 am, Sensex was up by 855.84 points or 1.11% at 77,761.35 and the Nifty gained by 260.15 points or 1.11% at 23,610.55. Close to 2,569 shares advanced, 968 shares declined and 149 shares remained unchanged.

On the broader markets front, Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices went up by 1.3% and 1.2% respectively. Considering the sectors, 12 out of the 13 sectoral indices traded in green, while Nifty Auto traded flat.

Banking stocks cheered with significant gains as Bank Nifty, Nifty Private Bank and Nifty PSU Bank indices soared by over 2% each. Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, and SBI emerged among the top gainers across the Bank Nifty and Nifty 50 indices.

Additionally, the return of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) in the Indian equities market drove the overall sentiment. Last week’s aggressive short covering by FIIs in the index futures segment, contributed gains in the domestic benchmarks. However, 68% remain on the short side.

“We expect their short covering activity to continue in the coming days, which augurs well for the market's upward momentum,” said Devarsh Vakil, Head of Prime Research, HDFC Securities.

Following four consecutive weeks of losses, Wall Street managed to clock gains on March 21. This comes after US President Donald Trump hinted that he would be flexible regarding a new round of tariffs expected to be imposed early next month. Dow Jones Industrial Average gained by 0.08%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose by 0.08% and 0.52% respectively.

Keeping the future in mind, experts leave a cautionary note despite bullishness in the market. “Investors have to be careful. April 2, 2025- the reciprocal tariffs day- is looming large and the uncertainty surrounding that is huge. Investors can wait for clarity to emerge regarding the reciprocal tariffs before taking a call on further investment,” stated V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investment Services.