Market weekly round-up: Nifty logs best week in two months, led by IT stocks

Mumbai, Aug 31
Indian equity indices witnessed a stellar rally this week. Due to strong domestic and global cues, Nifty and Sensex posted around 1.6 per cent gains between August 26 and August 30.

In the last trading session, Nifty closed at 25,235.90 with a rise of 83.95 points or 0.33 per cent and Sensex closed at 82,365.77 with a rise of 0.28 per cent or 231.16 points. In intraday, Sensex and Nifty made new all-time highs of 82,637 and 25,268 respectively. This was the 12th consecutive session for Nifty and 9th for Sensex when both benchmark indices saw gains.

Among the sector indices, Nifty IT (4.2 per cent), Nifty Realty (3.33 per cent), Nifty Pharma (3.02 per cent), Nifty Oil & Gas (2.25 per cent), Nifty Finance (1.65 per cent), Nifty Media (1.65 per cent), Nifty Metal (1.36 per cent), Nifty Auto (1.33 per cent), Nifty Energy (1.03 per cent) and Nifty Bank (0.74 per cent) were the major gainers.

In NSE indices, FMCG (0.29 per cent) and Nifty PSU Bank (0.53 per cent) were the major laggards this week.

In the Nifty pack, LTI Mindtree (9.1 per cent), Bajaj Finserv (8.7 per cent), Bajaj Finance (6.9 per cent), HCL Technologies (5.5 per cent), Bharti Airtel (5.5 per cent), Cipla (5.1 per cent), Wipro (5.1 per cent), Divis Laboratories (4.9 per cent) and Bajaj Auto (4.7 per cent) were the top contributor.

Coal India (2.6 per cent), Kotak Mahindra Bank (2.1 per cent), Grasim Industries (1.8 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (1.3 per cent), Nestle India (1.1 per cent), Tata Steel (0.9 per cent) and Asian Paints (0.9 per cent) fell the most this week.

Shrey Jain, Founder and CEO of SAS Online, said, "Benchmark indices Nifty and Sensex maintained their momentum, closing at record highs today. This marks Nifty's best week in two months, with the index extending its winning streak to 12 consecutive sessions. The rise comes in the wake of US economic data easing growth concerns, while investors now await the latest domestic quarterly growth figures."

"This trend is expected to persist in the near term. A potential breakout could occur if banking stocks experience substantial buying. It is advisable to avoid aggressive shorting of Nifty and instead consider buying on dips, as disciplined traders with strict stop-loss strategies are likely to be rewarded," he added.