The Indian equity benchmarks surged on Wednesday mirroring gains in global equity markets after oil prices fell in international markets keeping inflation concerns at bay. The Sensex rose as much as 949 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 16,900 led by gains in HDFC twins, Reliance Industries, Infosys, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.
As of 12:35 pm, the Sensex was up 861 points at 56,638 and Nifty 50 index climbed 252 points to 16,915.
Overnight, technology companies led stocks broadly higher on Wall Street Tuesday, as oil prices slid sharply for the second day and inflation worries ebbed. The market rally came a day ahead of the Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated interest rate policy update.
Meanwhile, investors will watch out for Federal Open Market Committee decision. Central banks around the world are preparing to pull the plug on the support they poured into the global economy after the pandemic struck. The Fed began a two-day meeting on interest rates, and the wide expectation is that it will announce on Wednesday an increase of 0.25 percentage points to its key short-term rate.
Back home, buying was visible across the board as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Bank index's over 2 per cent gain. Nifty Financial Services, Auto, IT, Metal, PSU Bank, Private Bank, Realty, Consumer Durables and Realty indices also rose between 1-2.3 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing strong buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices rose around 1.5 per cent each.
Axis Bank was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 4 per cent to Rs 724. IndusInd Bank, HDFC, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Grasim Industries, Tata Motors, SBI LIfe, HDFC Bank, Infosys, HDFC Life and ICICI Bank also rose between 2-3.7 per cent.
On the flipside, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Tata Consumer Products and ONGC were among the notable losers in the Nifty 50 index.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,287 shares were advancing while 513 were declining in the BSE.
