The Indian equity markets extended gains on Thursday with the benchmark Nifty rising back above 15,100 level helped by strong global cues.

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Value buying after the Union Budget lifted the benchmarks to their life-time high levels. The Nifty has already rallied 10 percent so far this month.

On the global front, low-interest-rate scenario, economic recovery, and rising demand supported the markets.

Analysts expect the Indian markets to continue the upward trajectory and advise investors to buy quality stocks on every dip.

"We believe any dip from here on should be capitalised on to accumulate quality stocks in a staggered manner as we do not expect the Nifty to breach the key support threshold of 14,300,” ICICI Direct said in a report.

The brokerage expects Nifty to challenge the lifetime high of 15,432 and gradually head towards its revised target of 15,700 in the coming months.

"Broader market's relative outperformance would endure wherein catch-up activity would be seen in small-cap stocks," it said.

ICICI Direct noted that since May 2020, the index has not sustained below its 50 days Exponential Moving Average (EMA) which subsequently offered a fresh entry opportunity. Currently, the 50 days EMA is placed at 14,340, it said.

"Price wise, the index has not corrected for more than 8-9 percent. In the current scenario, 8 percent correction from life-time highs would be at 14,200. Time-wise, a secondary correction has not lasted for more than a week, since May 2020,” the brokerage said.

For Bank Nifty, ICICI Direct does not expect it to breach the crucial support area of 34,000 on the observations that since October 2020, the time-wise intermediate correction has not lasted for more than six to eight sessions, and price-wise, the correction has been in the magnitude of 8-10 percent.

"In the current scenario, the index has already seen a decline of six sessions and has corrected by 7 percent. Hence, we expect the index to maintain the same rhythm and buying demand to emerge around 34,500-34,000 levels,” it said.

On the higher side, ICICI Direct expects Bank Nifty to retest its all-time high of around 37,800 in the coming month.

ICICI Direct has picked 23 bargain buys, including SBI Life Insurance, IndusInd Bank, HUL, Titan, Divis Laboratories, Sun Pharmaceuticals, JK Tyres, Indoco across sectors.

Here are ICICI Direct top bargain buys:

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