The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their five-day losing streak on Wednesday led by gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Infosys, HDFC, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever and Asian Paints. The Sensex rose as much as 753 points and Nifty 50 index touched and intraday high of 17,186.
The Sensex rose 574 points to close at 57,037 and Nifty 50 index advanced 178 points to settle at 17,137.
Markets went into oversold zone over the last five sessions with Sensex falling 5 per cent and Nifty declining 4.61 per cent and the bounce came on the back of short-covering rally a day ahead of the weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts, analysts said.
Bounce in HDFC and HDFC Bank after continuously falling for nine sessions also provided support to the rally during the session.
Ten of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Oil & Gas index’s nearly 2 per cent gain. Nifty Consumer Durables, Healthcare, Realty, Pharma, IT, FMCG and Auto indices also rose between 0.5-2 per cent.
On the other hand, metal, banking financial services and media indices closed lower.
Mid- and small-cap shares ended mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.75 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.2 per cent.
Bharat Petroleum was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4.23 per cent to close at Rs 392. Tata Motors, Shree Cements, Eicher Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Ultratech Cement, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries and UPL also rose between 2.6-3.75 per cent.
On the flipside, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, JSW Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, ONGC, Apollo Hospitals and ITC were among the top losers.
The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,738 shares ended higher while 1,662 closed lower on the BSE.
