Bank Nifty hits fresh all-time high; may rally to 19,500

MUMBAI: The Bank Nifty extended gains for fifth consecutive session to hit fresh all-time high in early trade today. The Index is nearly up 6 per cent and has aided the rally on the Nifty in the last five sessions.

According to analysts, the trend is positive in banking space and traders should hold on to long positions. Stronger buy signals in banks are being seen on the charts. When the markets corrected in the last two-and-a-half weeks, banks failed to start go below their 20-day average.

“The Bank Nifty is not only outperforming but also adding a lot of weightage or movement on the Nifty on the upside. If it continues to show strength - and the structure has definitely been positive for the last few days - then we are looking at possible targets of 19,500 to about 20,000 on the Bank Nifty itself, which should add fillip to the Nifty,” said Mitesh Thacker, Technical Analyst, miteshthacker.com.

Among the banking space, Tushar Poddar, CIO, HSBC AMC is bullish on the PSU banks.

“There is value in public sector banks. The classic definition of value is that intrinsic franchise is worth much more than what the market value seems to indicate at any point of time. The only problem is that the value cannot be unlocked for various reasons that we assign this public sector space to be,” Poddar told ET Now.

“Public sector banks continue to remain attractive because they all have the potential to dramatically alter their DNA and become what a private sector bank can be.

At 09:45 a.m.; the Bank Nifty was at 18,902.75, up 155.40 points or 0.83 per cent. It touched a high of 18,923.60 and a low of 18,737 in early trade.

Bank of Baroda (up 2.24 per cent), SBI (up 1.41 per cent), Punjab National Bank (up 1.39 per cent), Axis Bank (up 1.28 per cent) and Federal Bank (up 1.10 per cent) were the major Nifty gainers.