The Indian equity benchmarks bounced back after yesterday’s sharp decline led by gains in HDFC, Infosys, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints and Reliance Industries. The Sensex rose as much as 399 points and Nifty 50 index briefly moved above its important psychological level of 14,750.
As of 9:59 am, the Sensex was up 286 points or 0.6 per cent at 49,454 and Nifty advanced 90 points or 0.6 per cent to 14,728.
Buying was visible across the board as all the 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index’s 1.3 per cent gain. Auto, financial services, banking, pharma, private bank and realty indices also rose between 0.5-1.3 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.8 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 1 per cent.
JSW Steel was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3 per cent to Rs 533. Tata Motors, Cipla, Asian Paints, Power Grid, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Hindustan Unilever, Hindalco and SBI Life also rose between 1-2 per cent.
On the flipside, Titan, Grasim Industries, HCL Technologies, ITC and Britannia Industries were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,609 shares were advancing while 655 were declining on the BSE.