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Sensex holds 900-point gain at midday as Nifty touches new high of 23,360
Reliance Industries, up nearly 8%, kept the rally going into late morning, though the fear gauge India VIX rose with the market and the rupee stayed weak near 95 to the dollar.
Key points
- At 11:22 am the Sensex was up 924 points at 75,383.98, and the Nifty up 266 points at 23,319.55.
- The Nifty touched a fresh day's high of 23,360.50, above its mid-morning peak.
- Reliance rose nearly 8%; Coal India, Shriram Finance and Max Healthcare also gained more than 4%.
Indian shares held most of their big morning gains into midday on Monday, with Reliance Industries still doing the heavy lifting and the Nifty 50 pushing to a new high for the day.
At 11:22 am the Sensex stood at 75,383.98, up about 924 points, or 1.24%, and the Nifty 50 at 23,319.55, up about 266 points, or 1.16%. The Sensex had been as much as 1,030 points higher in the first hour, so the rally has cooled only slightly, while the Nifty climbed to a fresh intraday high of 23,360.50, about 30 points above its mid-morning peak.
Reliance leads, coal and steel follow
Reliance Industries traded nearly 8% higher, near ₹1,254, as investors kept buying after its September-quarter profit rose about 41% from a year earlier. It remained the single biggest contributor to the index gain.
Behind it, the morning’s leaders were a mix of commodity and financial names. Shriram Finance rose about 5%, Coal India and Max Healthcare about 4.6% each and Tata Steel about 4.4%. On the other side, Adani Ports, Infosys, ICICI Bank and Sun Pharma were the main Nifty laggards, each down between about 0.7% and 1.3%.
A nervous undertone
Not every signal was as cheerful. The India VIX, which measures expected swings in the Nifty, rose about 2.4% to 15.66 by 10:05 am, an unusual move on a day when the index itself was up more than 1%. A rising VIX alongside a rally usually means traders are paying more for protection against a sharp move either way.
The currency market was also cautious. The rupee slipped 21 paise to 94.97 per dollar in early trade, from 94.76 on Friday, as the dollar firmed, even though Brent crude fell about 3% to just under $110 a barrel.
“USDINR is likely to trade within 94.40-95.60 after ending October near 94.95,” said Anindya Banerjee, head of commodity and currency research at Kotak Neo. He said softer crude would help the rupee, while a fresh rise in oil would push the dollar towards the top of that range.
What to watch this afternoon
Cheaper oil and the return of foreign buyers, who bought about ₹3,600 crore of shares on Friday, remain the main props for the market. Traders will watch whether the Nifty can hold above 23,300 into the close and how oil moves as talks to end the US-Iran conflict continue.