Sensex rose as much as 757 points and Nifty 50 index moved closer to 15,150.
The Indian equity benchmarks extended gains in noon deals and were on track to end higher for third day in a row on Wednesday on the back of a broad-based buying interest. Infosys, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank and Reliance Industries were top movers in the Sensex. The Sensex rose as much as 757 points and Nifty 50 index moved closer to its important psychological level of 15,150. Strong buying by foreign institutional investors led to positive sentiment on Dalal Street, analysts said.
As of 1:34 pm, Sensex rallied 736 points to 51,032 and Nifty 50 index climbed 218 points to 15,137.
Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 2,223 crore while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 854 crore.
Buying was visible across sectors as all the 11 sector gauges, barring the index of auto shares, were trading higher led by Nifty Metal index’s 3.4 per cent rally. Nifty Bank, IT, Private Bank, Infrastructure, Financial Services and Realty indexes also rose 1-3 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose around 1.5 per cent.
In the IPO market, MTAR Technologies initial public offering (IPO) was over-subscribed within hours of opening on the stock exchanges, data from the National Stock Exchange showed. MTAR Technologies shares were in huge demand among investors as it received total bids for 91 lakh shares as against 72.60 lakh shares on the offer. Nearly 70 lakh bids were received for the MTAR Technologies IPO at the cut-off price of Rs 575. MTAR Technologies IPO was subscribed 1.25 times as of 12:30 pm, NSE data showed.
Tata Steel was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 6 per cent to Rs 778. Adani Ports, Bajaj Finserv, JSW Steel, Hindalco, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Tata Motors, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank also rose between 2.5-4 per cent.
On the flipside, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, BPCL and Eicher Motors were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,849 shares were advancing while 1,025 were declining on the BSE.