Mkts stage biggest swing in 6 months

Market may have some more steam left until benchmarks hit resistance levels

- Ram Sahgal

MUMBAI: India's stock benchmarks staged the sharpest intraday recovery in six months on Friday, supported by foreign investors snapping up large-cap stocks. With bulls in pole position, analysts expect the Nifty to trend up early next week to cross the 25,000-mark, where it is expected to face stiff resistance.

The last time Nifty and Sensex swung through a larger range was on June 5, a day after the Lok Sabha election results showed a third term for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

The Nifty closed up 0.9% at 24,768.30 while the Sensex closed up 1.04% at 82,133.12, as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net purchased shares worth a provisional ₹2,335.32 crore, even as DIIs net sold a provisional ₹732.2 crore worth of shares. Analysts anticipate a sharper rally on Monday as both indices closed near the day's highs.

Before the recovery, however, the Nifty gyrated 611.50 points or 2.5% between the day's low of 24,180.80 and the high of 24,792.30. This was the sharpest swing since June 5 when the bellwether swung 878 points or 4%. From a low of 21,884.5 on June 4, the Nifty rose 20% to hit a life-high of 26,277.35 on September 27.