Nifty roars past 24,000 for first time since January

Mumbai: India's equity indices rose over 1% on Monday - extending gains for the fifth straight trading session - with the Nifty closing above 24,000 for the first time since January 3, led by upsides in Information Technology (IT) and banking stocks after fourth quarter earnings of select heavyweights in these sectors beat expectations. Analysts said upsides could continue due to short covering until the monthly derivatives expiry on April 24, as investors await earnings of other large blue-chip companies later this week.

The NSE Nifty gained 1.2%, or 273.90 points, to finish at 24,125.55. The BSE Sensex moved 1.1%, or 855.30 points, higher at 79,408.50. Both indices have surged up to 6% each in the past five trading sessions.

"The gains in the market were driven by the strong results by the benchmark heavyweights such as ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank, while the optimistic guidance on improving outlook by IT bellwether Infosys triggered a short squeeze in the IT stocks," said Siddartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Khemka said India's trade talks with the US and the American Vice President J D Vance's visit to India are positive for India.

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Tech Mahindra emerged as the top gainer on both indices, soaring 5.14% on NSE while Trent and IndusInd Bank gained over 4% each.

All sectoral indices except FMCG closed higher. The Nifty IT Index surged 2.3% on Monday while Bank Nifty gained 1.9% and hit an all-time high.

"IT stocks witnessed short covering because most of the negatives are already priced in while banking stocks saw buildup of long positions after investors gained confidence in the latter post ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank's earnings," said Rajesh Palviya, Head of Technical and Derivatives, Axis Securities.

Palviya said the Nifty can move towards 24,500 level, with 23,800 as a key support level. Since the prospects of banks are tied to the Indian economy, investors perceive the sector to be insulated from the uncertainties around tariffs and the trade war. Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever and HCL Technologies, among others, will report earnings for the quarter ended March 31 this week. Khemka said short covering is anticipated to continue in the market, and the renewed buying by foreign investors in the recent sessions is supporting the momentum.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,970.2 crore on Monday. Their domestic counterparts sold shares worth Rs 246.6 crore. In the last three trading sessions, overseas investors divested Rs 14,600 crore of equities in India.

The Nifty Mid-cap 150 index and the Small-cap 250 index rose 2.2% and 1.9%, respectively. In the past week, the mid-cap and small-cap indices jumped over 6% each.

Out of the 4,247 shares traded on BSE, 2,903 advanced, while 1,199 declined. Elsewhere in Asia, China moved 0.5% higher while Indonesia and South Korea advanced 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively. Taiwan and Japan fell 1.5% and 1.3%.