Indices end on positive note, erase some of previous losses

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The Indian Stock Market ended on a positive note on Monday and erased some of the previous losses.

Sensex ended the day at 72,748.42, up by 104.99 points or 0.14 per cent while the Nifty was up 32.40 points or 0.15 per cent at 22,055.70.

Buying was seen across the sectors, barring IT and FMCG. Nifty Metal was on a positive side with a gain of 2.33 per cent, ended as the top gainer among sectoral indices. It was followed by Nifty Auto (1.29 per cent), Realty (1.22 per cent) and Media (1.09 per cent).

Bank Nifty closed the day on a negative note for the seventh consecutive trading session.

The banking index has formed a small bullish candlestick pattern with a long lower shadow on the daily charts, indicating buying interest at lower levels.

Mid and smallcap indices underperformed the benchmarks with BSE Midcap index ended 0.04 per cent up while the Smallcap index ended 0.07 per cent lower.

After the initial fall in the morning trade; Mid and Smallcap segments remained range bound and underperformed the Nifty50.

The top gainers in the Nifty 50 index were the shares of Tata Steel (5.01 per cent), Mahindra and Mahindra (3.31 per cent) and JSW Steel (2.81 per cent).

On the losing side were the shares of UPL (2 per cent), Infosys (1.97 per cent) and Tata Consumer Products (1.95 per cent).

For Sensex, the shares of Reliance Industries, Tata Steel and Mahindra and Mahindra were the top contributors. However, shares of Infosys, TCS and HDFC Bank ended as the top drags.

On BSE, Bharti Airtel, Cigniti Technologies, Colgate Palmolive, Force Motors, Hercules Hoists, Linde India, Oracle Financial Services, Reliance Infra, SMS Pharma, Solar Industries, TCS touched their 52-week-high.

A volume spike of more than 100 per cent was seen in Coforge, Balrampur Chini Mills and PI Industries.

The shares of the PSU insurer, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) traded in the red, down more than 2 per cent, on plans to raise wages by around 17 per cent for its over 1.1 lakh employees.

Last week, LIC announced the approval from the government for a wage revision for its employees, effective from August 1, 2022. This announcement benefits over 110,000 employees across the organisation.

Global cues were largely positive on better-than-expected Chinese data. As per the reports, China’s industrial output grew 7 per cent year-on-year in the January-February period, while retail sales rose 5.5 per cent year-on-year.

Real estate remained a worry for the country as property investment fell 9 per cent on the year.

The Asian giant China is the largest consumer of commodities in the world. Any pick up in China demand can lift overall global steel demand and prices of commodities.