Sensex gains for third straight day as financials lead; Nifty may soon hit 15,100

Market breadth was largely positive as 1,785 shares advanced while 1,178 declined.

BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 ended in the positive territory on Wednesday, surging over 1.5 per cent ahead of the monthly expiry of the F&O contracts of April due on Thursday. Surging for the third straight day, Sensex zoomed nearly 800 points to end at 49,734, while Nifty advanced over 200 points to settle at 14,865. Market breadth was largely positive as 1,785 shares advanced while 1,178 declined. A total of 181 stocks remained unchanged. Broader markets too participated in today’s rally. S&P BSE MidCap index gained one per cent or 200 points to end at 20,482, while S&P BSE SmallCap jumped 0.7 per cent or 152 points to end at 21,658.44.

Market comment by Mohit Nigam, Head, PMS, Hem Securities

Markets continued the positive momentum carried since yesterday & closed almost 1.5% higher. Bank Nifty ended 3% higher today and was the chief driver of the rally for the second day in a row. Positive & stable results by ICICI, Axis & Bajaj Finance have changed the momentum of the markets which showed weakness in the past few weeks. We expect the momentum to continue with a stronger movement across small & mid caps especially in the Chemicals segment. 15000 becomes a psychologically important resistance for the markets to break for further upside, 14650 becomes the fresh support.

Manish Hathiramani, proprietary index trader and technical analyst, Deen Dayal Investments

The markets have successfully closed above the 14700 level and this is a positive signal. We should now be headed to 15100. The index has a good support at 14300-14400 and as long as that holds, we could use any intra day correction or dip to buy into this market for higher targets.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services

Superior Q4 results and vaccine optimism buoyed domestic markets to trade on a positive footing for the third consecutive day ahead of the Fed interest rate decision. Strong buying interest was seen in banking and auto stocks with enhanced business prospects which is likely to be maintained.

Rohit Singre, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities

One more gap up session with open & low same hit the fresh breakouts on the daily chart and closed a day at 14850 with good gains of one & half per cent. The index has given descending channel pattern breakout on the daily chart which hints if current levels are held then we may see good northward move in the near term, immediate support is shifted to 14750-14650 zone & resistance is placed at 14950-15000 zone also fresh breakout again can be seen above 15k mark which acted previously as strong hurdle.

S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities

Bulls went on a rampage with Banks & autos especially the two-wheeler stocks being sought after in what turned out to be a bullish session of trade through the day. The HDFC twins & Bajaj twins lent good support to the Indices with the broader market displaying strength across sectors