Today’s rally was driven by robust support from both the banking and IT sectors. The surge in tech stocks was fueled by their healthy performance in the December quarter, while banking stocks witnessed a jump in anticipation of positive numbers for the Q3 period.
Against this backdrop, the Nifty 50 gained 1%, or 221 points, in today’s intraday trade, crossing the noteworthy 22,000 mark for the first time and reaching a new high of 22,115 points. The index then finished the session with a gain of 0.93%, or 202.90 points, at 22,097.
Major Contributors
Notably, 32 constituents of the index finished the session in the green zone, with the five heavyweights contributing 158 points, or 78%, to the Nifty 50’s overall rally.
Among these, HDFC Bank emerged as a significant contributor, supporting 66.16 points to the index rally. During today’s trading session, the stock witnessed a 1.93% spike, reaching ₹1,672 apiece.
In its latest Q3FY24 preview report, brokerage firm Motilal Oswal expects the bank to post a net profit of ₹16,241.6 crore for the December ending quarter (Q3FY24), an increase of 32.5% YoY and 1.7% QOQ.
It expects NII to increase by 26.8 YoY and 6.4% QoQ to ₹29,142.3 crore. The pre-provision operating profit is expected to rise by 26.2% YoY and 5.8% QoQ to ₹24,016 crore.
Meanwhile, another heavyweight that contributed most to Nifty 50’s rally was Reliance Industries. The stock has been in an upward trend over the last three trading sessions, and it continued the same robust momentum in today’s trade by touching a fresh record high of ₹2,792 apiece and contributing a significant 34.47 points to the index rally.
Another noteworthy contributor was Infosys, adding 32 points to the index. After achieving its best intraday performance in the last three years during Friday’s trading session, the stock continued its upward trajectory today, spiking another 2.44% to reach a new one-year high of ₹1,664.95 apiece.
Following the company’s Q3 FY24 earnings, domestic brokerage firms maintained their positive outlook on the stock and revised their target prices higher.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel also contributed 13.68 points to the index in today’s trade, with the stock gaining 2.2% to reach ₹1,102 apiece. The stock also touched a new record high of ₹1,104 during the intraday session.
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Another IT major, HCL, also achieved a new record high of ₹1,619.90 apiece in today’s session by gaining 5.11% and supporting the index rally by 11.42 points. Investors responded positively to the company’s Q3 FY24 earnings, which were released on Friday post market hours.
It posted a consolidated net profit of ₹4,350 crore. This marked an improvement from the preceding quarter’s ₹3,832 crore, reflecting a 6.2% increase on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.
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It reported consolidated revenue of ₹28,446 crore for the quarter ending in December, reflecting 6.5% YoY growth. On a sequential basis, HCL observed a 6.7% increase in revenue. In constant currency terms, the revenue grew by 6% QoQ and 4.3% YoY.
Disclaimer: We advise investors to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
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Published: 15 Jan 2024, 06:30 PM IST