Nifty closed above 13000 for the first time and formed a bullish candle on the daily chart as closing was higher than the opening level.

Nifty opened above 13000 to hit an intraday record high of 13079 in afternoon trade. It ended at 13055, up 128 points ,or 1 percent.

Nifty started off trade above the psychologically important 13000 mark and ended with a record closing. Consistent foreign inflows and as hopes of COVID-19 vaccine availability in India lifted sentiment.

Market is inching higher with more confidence that Covid19 vaccine will be available in India soon. It can provide an advantage to India compared to the rest of the world. While, foreign inflows have already broken to a new high on a monthly basis, due to risk on strategy on healthier EMs like India. Recently broad market, including Mid & Small caps, have started to perform better which may continue in the short-term as large caps look expensive post the solid rally from Covid low.

Markets are celebrating the successful vaccine trials, ignoring the recent spike in the cases. Indications are in the favour of the prevailing up move to extend further but the pace could be gradual. We reiterate our view to focus on the selection of sectors and stocks as we’re seeing rotational buying across the board.

Throughout the session, the bulls managed to keep the index above 13000, which may force the bears to run for cover ahead of the monthly expiry by squaring off their short positions if any in individual stocks. This itself may become the reason for further upmove for next couple of trading sessions which may initially expand the rally towards 13236 level.

Despite new life time highs, at this juncture, momentum is clearly favouring the bulls, as the Nifty managed a close above the psychological resistance point of 13000 level.

The rally may extend towards 13100/13236, but advised caution as indices are in overbought levels after the recent rally.

Traders should remain cautious as the rally may get choked at any time as revealed by some of the momentum oscillators, which failed to make new swing highs along with the price chart, thereby displaying some sort of negative divergence with a lower top.

Traders, who are long, should maintain a tight stop below 12978 on the closing basis.

Sector Wise :- Nifty Bank index up 2.4 percent, while auto, metal and pharma indices rose 1 percent each.