Stock Market Highlights: Sensex ends 113 points higher; Bajaj Finance up 3%, Infosys, Wipro 2%

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Cautiously optimistic outlook for 2022, long-term India story intact: Equitymaster's Rahul Shah

Rahul Shah, Co-Head- Research at Equitymaster, has a cautiously optimistic outlook for the coming year. "There is a strong possibility we may witness a correction of 20 percent or more in the coming year.  In fact, we are already down seven percent from the October highs and may go down further," he said.

"Valuation-wise also, the market is expensive with the Sensex currently trading at a PE multiple of more than 27 times its long-term average of around 21 times," he said. If earnings growth does not come in as strong as expected, the market may perhaps disappoint in 2022, he added.

"It may not be a bad idea to book profits in stocks that have gone up a lot over the last 1-2 years and take some money off the table," according to Shah. 

'Long-term India story intact'

"Make no mistake, the long-term India story does remain intact... But it is always a good idea to take advantage of these small bull and bear markets within the larger, longer-term bull market, and give your portfolio that extra edge. On the stocks front, prefer stocks with strong balance sheets and reasonable valuations and maintain a safe distance from highly speculative counters where the track record is hardly inspiring," he added.

Nifty50 poised to test 17,350-17,400 hurdle in coming sessions: Gaurav Ratnaparkhi

Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research at Sharekhan by BNP Paribas, said the Nifty looks poised to test the barrier of 17,350-17,400 in the coming sessions. Overall, he sees levels of 17,000-17,600 as the broad short-term range for the index. "Within that, 17,170-17,400 will be the tight range over the next few sessions," he added.

Expect more aggressive action from Fed sooner than later: Mehta Equities' Prashant Tapse

Prashant Tapse, Vice President (Research) at Mehta Equities, said the picture has become murkier for equity benchmarks in the near term after the Fed signaled three rate hikes for 2022. "Headline inflation in the US accelerated at the fastest annual pace since 1982... this ideally means more aggressive action from the Fed sooner than later," he said. 

"Volatility is likely to be the hallmark in the market and the bulls will majorly heave a sigh of relief only above 17,607," he said.

Gold Outlook For 2022 | Here's what brokerages say on the precious metal

Gold has disappointed in 2021 so far, after significant returns in the last three years.

Here's what brokerages think about the yellow metal now:

ANZ is bearish on gold and expect it to hit the $1,600/ounce mark.

JPMorgan is also bearish, and has given a target of $1,630/oz.

Capital Economics expects the first half of 2022 to be positive for gold, but expects the year to close at $1,600/oz. (Read more on gold)

All major events now behind, global market performance to be critical in coming days: Religare Broking's Ajit Mishra

Ajit Mishra, VP-Research at Religare Broking, believes the performance of global markets will be critical in the coming days given that all the major events are now behind. "We expect the buzz to continue in the primary market. Among sectors, only the IT pack looks decisive to us while others are witnessing mixed trends. Participants should plan accordingly," he said.

Traders should expect volatility in coming days: Manish Shah  

Independent technical analyst Manish Shah believes the Nifty cannot remain in a narrow range for long. "The index needs to break below 17,180 to move lower, in which case a drop to 16,900 is likely. On the upside, resistance is at 17,400. If this level gets taken out, we will see the Nifty revisit 17,700," he said. 

"For directional traders, it is best to let the Nifty resolve out of this range... The spring is wound and volatility compressed. Either way, when volatility expands, there should be a swift move," he added.

Market At Close | Reliance, Infosys hold Nifty in green territory; ICICI Bank drags index

Here are some highlights: 

--Broader indices fail to hold on to day’s gains; Nifty Bank retreats 611 points from top

--Midcap index 475 points off high; Torrent Power, TVS contribute most to losses

--Hindalco, Cipla, ICICI Bank, Maruti top index losers 

--Torrent Pharma in red despite no Form 483 to Pennsylvania manufacturing unit

--Gujarat Fluoro falls 8% after company reports fire at Halol unit

--17 crore Vedanta shares trade on exchanges; stock near day’s high

--Market breadth in favour of bears; advance-decline ratio at 1:2

(Read more on how the market fared at the close)

Rupee ends higher at 76.09 vs US dollar

The rupee closed at 76.09 against the greenback as against its previous close of 76.23.

Bullish on KIMS, target price Rs 1,512: Ambareesh Baliga

Independent market expert Ambareesh Baliga is bullish on Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS). "It is one of the largest corporate healthcare groups in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It is into multidisciplinary integrated health services with a focus on primary, secondary and tertiary care. It has a decently large bed capacity of 3,000-plus, out of which, about 2,500 were operational as of the last year. I think most should be operational in the first two quarters, although I don't really have the numbers right now. In fact, they recently took about 55 percent stake in Sunshine Hospitals, where they added about 600 beds, which is again the into orthopaedics and cardiac, and planning an expansion into five geographies Kondapur, which is close to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bengaluru and Chennai. They should be adding about 1,500 more beds in these locations in the next four years," he said.

"If you look at the performance in the last five years, it has delivered a CAGR of about 50 percent in the last five years of profit growth. For FY23, I am expecting EPS of about Rs 42. So even giving it a 36x, which is a major discount to the major listed ones, like Apollo. I am having a target price of about Rs 1,512," he said. 

Prefer ancillaries in auto pack: Kotak AMC's Harish Krishnan 

Harish Krishnan, Executive VP and Senior Equity Fund Manager at Kotak AMC, said the auto sector has underperformed from a 3-5 year perspective. "A lot of underpenetration that these segments cater to will likely manifest in the form of demand over the course of the next 24-36 months. So our preference is more towards auto ancillaries where there are plays catering to both the domestic as well as global auto cycles,” he said.

Market At Close | Bajaj Finance, Infosys, BPCL, Wipro among top blue-chip gainers; Hindalco, Cipa, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank top laggards

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Here's how the Sensex pack fared at the close: 

Closing Bell | Sensex up 113 points at 57,901, Nifty at 17,248 as market rebounds

The 30-scrip index ended 113.1 points or 0.2 percent higher at 57,901.1 and the broader Nifty50 benchmark settled at 17,248.4, up 27 point or 0.2 percent from its previous close. Both benchmark indices closed in the green after four straight sessions, helped by gains in IT and select oil & gas stocks.

E-commerce, edtech have high growth potential: JPMorgan’s Ankur Rudra

Ankur Rudra of JPMorgan told CNBC-TV18 he thinks the pandemic has made digitisation even more important. “Growth has never been a challenge; growth probably becomes a lot easier now. But the main thing the industry needs to figure out is what are the sustainable unit economics in every different part of the internet economy that we are looking at,” he said. (Read more)

Good time to buy financial stocks: Deven Choksey 

Deven Choksey of KRChoksey believes it is a good time to buy stocks from the financial basket. "This correction is a meaningful correction. Many of the stocks corrected 10-15 percent from highs and gave an opportunity. The fundamentals of the banking space, private banks in particular, are extremely strong,” he said.

Speaking on pharmaceutical stocks, he said Sun Pharma could be the one to watch out for given the launches in its pipeline.