Indian stock markets closed higher on Monday, June 22, with the BSE Sensex ending at 77,094.07, up 291.17 points or 0.38% and the NSE Nifty50 settling at 24,102.90, gaining 89.80 points or 0.37%. According to Business Standard, the Sensex touched an intraday high of 77,325.56 during trading, showing strong recovery momentum after Friday's dip that ended a five-session-long bull run. The India VIX declined 1.29% to 12.80, indicating reduced market volatility expectations, while market breadth remained strongly positive, with 2,634 shares rising and 1,757 shares falling on the BSE, with 206 shares touching their 52-week high including Kirloskar Oil, Aegis Logistics, New India Assurance, GNFC, HFCL, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC, Belrise Industries, AIA Engineering, Aditya Birla Capital, Sona BLW, Syrma SGS, Leela Palaces, Cemindia Projects, RBL Bank, Bharat Forge, among others.
HCL Tech, Infosys and Tech Mahindra shares were the top gainers on Sensex, rising nearly 1% each after the sharp fall on Friday wiped off a significant portion of investors' wealth. As reported by The Economic Times, the revenue guidance cut by Wall Street major Accenture had spooked investors on Friday. Infosys gained 1.29%, Reliance Industries rose 1.16%, and HDFC Bank advanced 0.74% to boost the Nifty higher. Nifty IT rose more than 1% to lead gains across all sectoral indices, which were trading in the green. Nifty Pharma emerged as the top-performing sectoral index during the session, with Cipla leading gains on the Nifty, jumping 4.82% to ₹1,417 after a foreign brokerage reiterated its 'Buy' rating with a target price of ₹1,700. The optimism was broad-based, with Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 indices gaining more than 0.4% each. The Nifty Media index rallied 1.42% to 1,536.95, with PVR Inox up 3.19%, Saregama India up 2.44%, Zee Entertainment Enterprises up 2.11%, Nazara Technologies up 1.08%, Sun TV Network up 0.74%, Network 18 Media & Investments up 0.41%, and Hathway Cable & Datacom up 0.16%. On the downside, Prime Focus declined 3.15%, D B Corp fell 0.75%, and Tips Music dropped 0.15%.
HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and Infosys were among the biggest contributors to the Nifty's gains, helping the benchmark index remain above the 24,100 mark by the close. According to CNBC TV18, from the Sensex basket, Cipla Ltd, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, Reliance Industries Ltd, Bajaj Auto Ltd, Tech Mahindra Ltd and Infosys Ltd were the major gainers, while Asian Paints Ltd, Titan Company Ltd, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, Shriram Finance Ltd, ITC Ltd and Coal India Ltd were the biggest laggards. The banking sector's strong performance was supported by positive company-specific developments and broad-based buying across the market.
Kirloskar Oil Engines shares surged as much as 20% to hit the upper circuit after securing a 192-megawatt order from HyperNext, marking a critical breakthrough in the data centre power market. According to CNBC TV18, RVNL gained over 1% after securing a ₹2,977 crore order from NMDC, while Power Mech rose 1.69% after winning a ₹1,008.90 crore contract from JSW Thermal Energy. Voltas added 1% after crossing one million air-conditioner sales in FY27. Knowledge Marine & Engineering Works (KMEW) jumped 13.37% after its consortium bagged a ₹66.11 crore contract from the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) for 10 hybrid electric passenger ferries. Asian Energy Services jumped 1.43% after securing an EPC contract worth ₹187.62 crore from Gujarat State Electricity Corporation (GSECL). Sun Pharmaceutical Industries added 1.40% after entering an agreement to acquire 100% outstanding shares of Innovcare Lifesciences for ₹271.2 crore. NOCIL hit the 20% upper circuit after the government imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of Sulphenamides Accelerators from China, the European Union and the United States for a period of five years. JM Financial upgraded the stock to BUY following the announcement, noting that KOEL's 2,500kVA Optiprime is equivalent to Cummins' flagship QSK65 product. The brokerage raised its price target to ₹2,430 and increased valuation multiple to 42x FY28 estimated earnings from 35x earlier.
According to Business Standard, the broader market outperformed the frontline indices, with the BSE 150 MidCap Index jumping 0.43% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index rising 0.76%. Fertiliser stocks gained on hopes of improved supply, with FACT rising 3%, while defence shares Bharat Dynamics and BEL also moved higher following a report of UAE interest in BrahMos and Akashteer systems. IOC, HPCL and BPCL rose nearly 1% after Brent crude slipped below $80 per barrel, supporting oil marketing companies. FMCG was the only major laggard among sectoral indices, while around 1,916 stocks advanced and 583 declined on NSE, while 143 remained unchanged. The rupee's appreciation and moderation in foreign portfolio investor (FPI) outflows also lent support to market sentiment, with Friday's net FPI inflow of ₹4,859 crore largely driven by the FTSE index rebalancing. Sentiment further strengthened after gains in heavyweight Reliance Industries, after its telecom arm Jio Platforms has filed a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for an initial public offering.
