The Indian equity benchmarks edged higher on Wednesday after witnessing a sharp decline in the previous session led by gains in heavyweights like Infosys, ICICI Bank, ITC, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries. The Sensex rose as much as 492 points and Nifty 50 moved above its important psychological level of 17,100 despite mixed cues from global markets.
As of 9:30 am, the Sensex was up 447 points at 57,592 and Nifty 50 index advanced 125 points to 17,140.
Most of the Asian markets were trading on a subdued note with Singapore's STRAITS Times down 0.15 per cent, Taiwan Weighted declined 0.05 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell nearly 1 per cent while Japan's Nikkei climbed 0.8 per cent.
Overnight, Dow Jones Industrial Average became the last of the major U.S. stock indexes to fall into what’s known as a bear market Monday as the market deepened its slump amid growing fears of a global recession.
The blue chip index fell 1.1 per cent, while the S&P 500 closed 1 per cent lower and the Nasdaq dropped 0.6 per cent as the indexes extended their losing streak to a fifth day.
The British pound dropped to an all-time low against the dollar and investors continued to dump British government bonds in displeasure over a sweeping tax cut plan announced in London last week.
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 Oil & Gas index's 1.6 per cent gain. IT, PSU Bank, FMCG, Bank, Auto and Financial Service indices also rose between 0.5-1.4 per cent.
Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 1.3 per cent.
ONGC was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.4 per cent to Rs 126. Cipla, Bharat Petroleum, Shree Cements, Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, NTPC, ITC, Asian Paints and Britannia Industries also rose between 1.4-2 per cent.
On the flipside, Hero MotoCorp, Hindalco, Divis Labs, Apollo Hospitals and JSW Steel were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,099 shares were advancing while 563 were advancing on the BSE.
