Bulls held a tight grip over the stock market on Friday as both Sensex and Nifty settled near their intraday high points. After a solid start, markets remained bullish throughout the trading session, as sentiments got a boost with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying that India’s economic growth is likely to be robust at 8.9% in the current financial year, reflecting the country’s strong resilience and speedy recovery.

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Sitharaman also expressed confidence that India will continue to achieve a high growth rate in the next financial year as well.

The Nifty50 has formed a double bottom around 15,735 on the daily chart, said Subash Gangadharan, Senior Technical and Derivative Analyst at HDFC Securities.

Gangadharan expects a move above the recent swing high of 16,400 to lead to further upsides this week. He warns that the intermediate trend remains negative though he is open to pullback rallies in the very near term.

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Indian Indices

Sensex rose 1,534.16 points or 2.91% to 54,326.39 and Nifty was up by 456.75 points or 2.89% to 16,266.15 in the previous session. Sensex touched a high and low of 54,396.43 and 53,403.29, respectively. There were 30 stocks advancing against no stocks declining on the index. Nifty traded in a range of 16,283.05 and 16,003.85. There were 48 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

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Broader Indices

The broader indices ended in green with the BSE Midcap index surging 1.98%, while the Small cap index was up by 2.13%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 4.22%, Metal up by 3.75%, Capital Goods up by 3.14%, Industrials up by 3.05% and Healthcare up by 3.04%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

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India VIX Index

Nifty or India VIX, a gauge of the market’s expectation of volatility over the near term, fell 5.94% to 23.10 on Friday.

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SGX Nifty

The trends on SGX Nifty indicate a positive opening for the index in India with a 547-points gain. The Nifty futures were trading at 16,349.50 on the Singaporean Exchange around 06:40 hours IST.

Support and Resistance levels

The key support level for the Nifty is placed at 16,086, followed by 15,905. If the index moves up, the key resistance levels to watch out for are 16,365 and 16,463. according to pivot charts.

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US Markets

The S&P 500 rose 0.57 points, or less than 0.1%, to 3,901.36.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 8.77 points, or less than 0.1%, to 31,261.90.

The Nasdaq fell 33.88 points, or 0.3%, to 11,354.62.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 2.96 points, or 0.2%, to 1,773.27.

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Asian Markets

Asian markets finished mostly higher on Friday. The Nikkei 225 rose 1.27% and the Hang Seng rose 2.96%. The Shanghai Composite gained 1.60%.

European Markets

European markets were higher on Friday after China cut its lending rates by a record quantum to prop up the economy. Germany’s DAX was up by 1.45% while France’s CAC 40 was up by 0.86% and London’s FTSE 100 was increased by 1.46%.

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Major News Headlines

Vijay Shekhar Sharma re-appointed as MD & CEO of Paytm till Dec 2027

Vijay Shekhar Sharma has been re-appointed as MD and CEO of digital financial services major Paytm. The re-appointment will last till December 18, 2027, the fintech company said in a stock exchange filing. Paytm CFO Madhur Deora has been re-appointed as a whole-time director till May 19, 2027.

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Mcap of three of top-5 valued firms rises Rs 1.78 lakh crore

Three of the top five valued companies together added Rs 1,78,650.71 crore to their market valuation last week, led by Reliance Industries. While Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Hindustan Unilever were the gainers from the top-five firms, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys were among the laggards. The market valuation of Reliance Industries jumped by Rs 1,31,320.8 crore to reach Rs 17,73,889.78 crore. Hindustan Unilever rallied by Rs 30,814.89 taking its valuation to Rs 5,46,397.45 crore. HDFC Bank’s added Rs 16,515.02 crore to reach Rs 7,33,156.15 crore.

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Shree Cement Q4 Results: Standalone Profit declines 16% YoY to Rs 645 crore, revenue jumps 3.6%

Shree Cement reported a 16% decline in standalone net profit of Rs 645 crore in the March quarter of the fiscal year 2021-22, compared with Rs 768 crore recorded a year ago. The Rajasthan-based cement major reported a 3.6% YoY rise in standalone revenues to Rs 4,099 crore as compared to revenue of Rs Rs 3,958 crore registered in the year-ago quarter. The company has recommended a final dividend of Rs 45 per equity share of Rs 10 each for the financial year ended March 2022.

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Power Grid Q4 Results: Net profit rises 18% to Rs 4,156 crore, declares interim dividend

State-owned Power Grid Corporation of India reported around an 18% rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 4,156.44 crore for the March 2022 quarter, on the back of higher income. The company had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,526.23 crore in the year-ago period. Total income during the March quarter increased to Rs 11,067.94 crore compared to Rs 10,816.33 crore recorded in the same quarter of the previous financial year. The board of the company has also declared an interim dividend of Rs 12.50 per share for the financial year 2021-22.

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Bulk Deal data

MADHURI RAJKUMAR SEKSARIA sold 3,15,939 shares in Dharani Sugars and Chem at Rs 12.75 per share on the NSE.

VISHESH GUPTA sold 36,00,316 shares in Integra Essentia Limited at Rs 0.15 per share on the NSE.

JESAL HITESH PATEL sold 1,44,000 shares in Kamat Hotels (I) Limited at Rs 69.52 per share as per NSE.

VIDULA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED bought 5,00,000 shares in Mangalam Cement Limited at Rs 310.01 per share as per NSE.

ANURADHA SURI sold 2,07,442 shares in Silgo Retail Limited at Rs 37.54 per share as per NSE.

SUDHIR CHUKKAPALLI sold 10,14,841 shares in Uttam Galva Steels Limited at Rs 4.00 per share as per NSE.

DII and FII data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 1,265.41 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 2,148.95 crore in the Indian equity market on May 20, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

NSE F&O Ban

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Delta Corp, Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers & Chemicals, Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd and Punjab National Bank are under the F&O ban for May 23. Securities in the ban period under the F&O segment include companies in which the security has crossed 95% of the market-wide position limit.