Banking stocks likely to lead market rally

NEW DELHI: Bank Nifty has been the biggest outperformer in recent months as good buying interest is seen across financial stocks.

Sandeep Gupta, Senior Group VP & Head of Dealing & Advisory - Broking & Distribution, MOFSL said the Index made a new all-time high of 44,483 mark on Monday, compared to its previous high of 44,151 made in December 2022.

Gupta said earning momentum continued for banking stocks as most banks reported strong results. Apart from further expansion in margins, asset quality too continued to improve. Loan book growth has been healthy across segments.

The Index is witnessing a strong breakout and could see further momentum from here on and the Index can now head towards 45,000 to 46,000 zones in coming sessions.

Gupta said apart from BFSI stocks, the investors at large are getting more active on mid and small caps where there has been a good momentum built in last few weeks.

"We are also seeing some buying happening on mid cap IT stocks lately after Nasdaq showed strong recovery in last few months and moving near to its 52 week high levels. Overall the participation on the retail investors are seeing good traction post momentum in broader markets," he added.

Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities, said the Bank Nifty index continued to be dominated by bulls as they maintained their grip on the market. The index successfully surpassed the immediate hurdle of 44,000, indicating the strength of the bullish trend. The next resistance level on the upside is now identified at 45,000.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: "The domestic benchmarks experienced a strong rally and came close to its life-time highs, primarily driven by positive global cues and robust predictions of domestic economic growth.

"An in-principle approval from US leaders for raising the US debt ceiling has generated optimism among global investors, who are now anticipating the next monetary plan of the Fed and economic data points. Meanwhile, the US PCE inflation rate that came in higher than anticipated raised the prospect of another rate hike by the Fed in its June meeting."