New Delhi: BSE Sensex began Samvat 2080 on a positive note with the index climbing 354 points beyond the 65,000 mark in the Muhurat trading session on Sunday. The Sensex ended the special one-hour session up 355 points at 65,259 points. Infosys led the Sensex gains up 1.4 per cent followed by Wipro, Asian Paints, TCS and NTPC.

The BSE Small Cap index gained 1.14 per cent while the BSE IPO Index was up more than 2 per cent. Motilal Oswal, Group MD & CEO, Motilal Oswal Financial Services said Hindu Samvat 2080 is likely to start on a positive note on the back strong earnings and healthy economic outlook. Samvat 2079 ended with Nifty gaining around 10 per cent, despite economic headwinds and global geopolitical concerns.

“Entering into Samvat 2080, we believe India would continue to shine and expect markets to maintain its outperformance. We believe that over the next couple of quarters, sector rotation would be an important driver along with the overall market uptrend. We expect sectors like BFSI, Discretionary Consumption, Construction & Real Estate and High Growth Niche Sectors to drive the overall market uptrend,” he said.

Sunil Shah, director at Khambatta Securities added: “Indian equities are expected to outperform most other global markets in the face of continued geopolitical uncertainties and relatively higher domestic economic growth. The major themes will be domestic consumption and premiumisation, enabling companies to post strong earnings growth aided by margin accretion. 

“Infra and construction plays are expected to do well as the government’s thrust on infrastructure development is seen to continue, while higher budgetary allocation in rural-focus schemes can help drive a recovery in rural consumption, especially with the upcoming budget being the last one before the general elections.

“In spite of rich valuations in the small- and mid-cap segments, companies with fundamentally strong businesses and good earnings growth continue to justify their valuation. If US bond yields start coming down by the second half of CY2024, FPIs will come back to the party. Upcoming state and general elections can make the market move sideways. Inflation, interest rate trajectory, and geopolitical tensions will remain the key risks.”