Here are three reasons why the market rose today:
1. Heavyweight push from financials and IT stocks
Index majors ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Infosys led the rally, helping both Sensex and Nifty gain nearly 1%. The Nifty IT index also strengthened after Axis Capital upgraded eight IT stocks, adding momentum to the broader market.
2. Strong rally in banking stocks
Nifty Bank jumped over 1.50% or 967 points to 58,150. All constituents closed in the green except Canara Bank, supporting the overall market uptrend.
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3. Stock-specific action across sectors
IndiGo’s market cap returned to ₹2 lakh crore after recovering losses linked to the Iran war impact. Oberoi Realty gained over 3% after receiving RERA approval for its Gurugram project. IRFC fell by over 5% after the government announced a 2% stake sale via OFS at ₹91 per share.
Downstream oil companies surged while upstream oil companies declined as Brent crude slipped below $76 per barrel. JSW Infra, M&M Financial Services, OFSS, Exide and HPCL were top midcap gainers, while Tata Motors CV rose over 2% on a healthy FY28 outlook.
Nifty India Defence was the top losing sectoral index, with MTAR Tech falling over 4%. Midcaps lagged, with the midcap index rising only 65 points to 62,135, while market breadth stayed neutral with an NSE advance-decline ratio of 1:1.
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From the Sensex basket, InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, Tech Mahindra Ltd, Trent Ltd, Bajaj Finance Ltd, Shriram Finance Ltd and Infosys Ltd were the major gainers. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Bajaj Auto Ltd, NTPC Ltd, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd were the biggest laggards.
Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Research, Wealth Management, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, on the IT sector, said, “There has been a lot of discussion around IT since February this year, and in the near term, we are clearly on the underweight or negative side on IT.
We believe that the growth expectations for FY27, which were earlier at about 3% to 5% for large caps before Q4, have now been reset to about 1% to 3%. Even the recent earnings outlook downgrade by Accenture is also a reflection of a much softer Q1 for Indian IT companies.
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What we believe is that while there are several other challenges, the AI-driven deceleration is real, and the productivity gains that are being seen are being passed on to clients. So, that is compressing the current growth of Indian IT services companies.
Clearly, in the near term, we see softer growth, at least in Q1 and Q2, and maybe gradually things will improve. Some of the companies that are delivering strong growth are where investors can focus. Valuations have come off, but apart from some occasional buying interest in the market, we largely believe that the sector could remain under pressure for some more time.”
