Sensex breaches 81,000 mark, Nifty above 24,800

The Indian equity market continued its impressive upward trajectory, reaching new record highs for the fourth consecutive session of gains on Thursday led by IT, banking and FMCG names.At close, the Sensex was up 626.91 points or 0.78 percent at 81,343.46, and the Nifty was up 187.85 points or 0.76 percent at 24,800.85.The BSE Sensex and Nifty50 touched fresh record highs of 81,522.55 and 24,837.75,respectively, during intraday trade.
Amid weak global cues, the Indian indices opened lower with Nifty below 24,550, but recovered in the initial hours and witnessed lackluster trading in the first half. However, buying in FMCG, IT and banking helped benchmarks to hit all-time highs.
TCS, LTIMindtree, ONGC, Bajaj Finserv and Wipro were the top gainers on the Nifty, while losers included Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Grasim, Coal India and Bajaj Auto
On the sectoral front,bank, auto, IT, FMCG and telecom rose 0.3-2 percent, while capital goods, metal, power, media were down 1-3.5 percent. The BSE midcap and smallcap index shed one percent each.
Rupee Close 
On 18 July'24, the Indian rupee depreciated 6 paise and settled at its all-time low of 83.64 against the US dollar on Thursday, as the strength of the American currency in the overseas market and overnight surge in crude oil prices weighed on investor sentiments.
Forex traders expect the rupee to trade with a slight negative bias on strong US dollar and weak Asian as well as European currencies. The US dollar strengthened, while the pound weakened amid disappointing labour market data from the UK. However, positive domestic markets and foreign fund inflows cushioned the downside in the domestic unit to a certain extent.
Trading Guide: 
Nifty opened gap down after a three-day rally on the bourses following a sharp fall in US chip stocks on reports that it is mulling tighter curbs on exports of advanced semiconductor technology to China. Nasdaq recorded its worst day since December 2022.
However as the day progressed it gained momentum and closed at a new All time high,the Nifty ends 188 points higher while the Sensex was up by 627 points."The weak opening in the market is a ripple effect of what's happened in the US and Asia markets overnights. Domestically, markets will likely consolidate before the budget," Kranthi Bathini, Director of Equity Strategy at WealthMills Securities reportedly quoted as saying.Besides Q1 earnings will play a big factor going forward and expectations are largely positive with no negative surprises,believe experts. Market experts have recommended buying these five buy or sell stocks-Suzlon, Tech Mahindra, Jindal Steel, Adani Total Gas, and Siemens.

(Writer is a Finance Research Analyst, based in Gandhinagar, Gujarat)