Indian benchmark indices closed strongly on Friday, with Sensex gaining 579.48 points or 0.75% to close at 77,502.12 and Nifty rising 169.85 points or 0.71% to 24,175.70. According to latest reports, IT stocks led the rally with Nifty IT surging nearly 5%, snapping a 4-day losing streak as markets responded to renewed optimism following a prolonged correction. Market breadth remained positive with 2,436 shares advancing, 1,663 declining, and 165 unchanged, while Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices rose 0.5% and 1.2% respectively. The broader markets also participated in the rally, with India VIX declining 3.93% to 12.72 indicating reduced volatility expectations. Out of the 3,452 stocks that traded on the NSE on July 2, Thursday, 2,226 stocks witnessed advances, 1,145 saw declines while 81 stocks remained unchanged, showing broad-based participation in the market rally.
The softer US job growth data showed US job growth slowed sharply in June, while payroll figures for the previous two months were revised lower, signalling a cooling labour market. As reported by LiveMint, this data prompted markets to scale back expectations of a near-term Fed rate hike. Lower US interest rates typically support capital flows into emerging markets such as India and boost business spending in the US, a key revenue market for Indian IT companies. The Nifty 50 has regained positive momentum after reclaiming the 24,000 mark, with improving market breadth and supportive domestic cues reinforcing the bullish undertone. Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, noted that Nifty has broken out of its recent consolidation, indicating improving market sentiment. He added that the benchmark index is sustaining above its critical moving averages, reinforcing the positive trend, with the momentum oscillator RSI breaking above its falling trendline, signalling strengthening momentum.
Apollo Tyres has shown strong performance with shares quoting at ₹457.45, up ₹25.45 or 5.89%, significantly outperforming the previous session's 0.45% gain. The stock touched an intraday high of ₹458.55 and low of ₹432.15, with trading volumes of 381,504 shares compared to the five-day average of 67,195 shares, representing a 467.75% increase in volume. Exide Industries has also performed well, surging 7.81% to ₹419.60 and topping BSE midcap gainers, while Five-Star Business Finance continues to show decisive breakout above resistance levels with expected upside of ₹585-610 and downside support at ₹525-515. Zensar Tech, C.E. Info Systems, Exide Industries, Sona BLW Precision, Tata Technologies, Persistent Systems and Apollo Tyres were among the stocks that witnessed strong buying interest from market participants. Among the ones which hit their 52-week highs on NSE included Sona BLW Precision, Aegis Logistics, ITD Cementation, Zydus Wellness, Ami Organics, Emmvee Photovoltaic and Inventurus Knowledge.
IT stocks emerged as the top sectoral performers with Nifty IT gaining nearly 5%, while Auto, Realty, Consumer Durables, and Metal sectors rose 1% each. However, Capital Goods, Power, Telecom, and PSU Bank sectors declined 0.3-0.7%. Among individual stocks, Infosys jumped 5.36% to top Nifty gainers, followed by TCS (3.46%), Tech Mahindra (2.80%), and HCLTech (4.31%). Stocks which witnessed significant selling pressure were Bank of Baroda, Thermax, AIA Engineering, RITES, HFCL, Avenue Supermart and BHEL. Among the ones that hit their 52-week lows on NSE included KPIT Tech and Wipro. The market outlook remains positive with Nifty holding above 24,150 and technical indicators suggesting continued bullish momentum, though volatility in global technology stocks may keep investors cautious despite current positive momentum. Rupak De from LKP Securities noted that in the near term, the trend is likely to remain positive, with the index having the potential to advance towards 24,300–24,500. On the downside, immediate support is placed at 24,000, with a breach below this level potentially dragging the index back into a phase of consolidation.
