Indian markets were trading firm on Monday as sustained buying has been witnessed in many sectors. Except for IT stocks, all the other sectors have been trading positive in today’s session. The current market rally has been broad-based with mid-cap and small-cap companies also witnessing higher valuations. The outlook for Indian economy is improving. GST collections reached Rs 1,61,497 crore in June 2023 registering nearly 12 percent jump compared to June 2022. April 2023 registered the highest GST collections at Rs 1.87 lakh crore.

2024 will be election year in India and usually, government increase spending on infrastructure projects before elections. Indian government has been announcing a lot of initiatives to improve many business sectors. Prime Minister Modi has visited United States and discussed many projects with CEOs of big US corporations for investments in India. Google, Amazon and Microsoft are among the companies that have announced major investments in India.

Automobile companies were trading lower in today’s session as sales were slightly lower during June. Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor Company and Hero MotoCorp were trading lower today. M&M has registered strong growth in vehicle sales and the stock is performing strong today. Ashok Leyland was also trading firm today as the company reported strong sales. Ashok Leyland touched 52-week in today’s trade.

South Indian Bank was trading nearly 5 percent higher after the lender informed that its deposits were 8.3 percent higher compared to June 2022 quarter. Dhanlaxmi Bank registered increase of 6 percent in deposits and advances were 15 percent higher compared to the same period last year. The stock was up by 4 percent.

Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders was trading firm by 8 percent after the company announced a deal with Indian Navy. The stock touched 52-week high in today’s session. Among heavyweight counters, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries were trading positive. UltraTech Cement was trading firm as the company reported strong sales.

“As far as levels are concerned, we can see Nifty heading towards 19350 – 19500 in the forthcoming week. However, one needs to be very selective going ahead because the low-hanging fruit is gone for the momentum traders. In between, we may see bout of profit booking, but the directional bias remains strongly bullish till the time 18600 is not violated. Before this, 19000 followed by 18800 are to be seen as key supports,” Sameet Chavan from Angel One Limited commented.

Hero MotoCorp will be launching Harley-Davidson X440 affordable bike in Indian market today. The bike will be manufactured and marketed by Hero MotoCorp in India. Tata Motors announced that the company will increase price of its passenger vehicles by 0.6 percent from 17 July.

IT stocks were trading lower today as there are fears of slowdown in new deals in the sector. The coming quarters could be difficult for IT sector as companies are keeping a check on their budgets.

NSE Nifty is currently trading at 20 times estimated FY24 earnings. While many market participants are expecting correction, we have only witnessed one way move during the last few weeks.