Closing Bell: Sensex jumps 684 points, Nifty up 171 points

Indian equity benchmarks saw a powerful performance by
surging over a percent on the trading day of the week amid cues from global
equities. Markets made a gap-up start and continued to trade with healthy gains
in the afternoon session as sentiments remained upbeat after India’s inflation
based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) crashed to an 18-month low of 10.7% in
September. WPI inflation was 12.41% in August. In September 2021, it stood at
11.80%.

The Sensex jumped 684.64 points or 1.20% to settle at
57,919.97. During the day, it rallied 1,199.79 points or 2.09% to 58,435.12.
The Nifty climbed 171.35 points or 1.01% to end at 17,185.70.

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The broader indices ended mixed with the BSE Midcap index
declining by 0.13% and the Smallcap index up by 0.01%. The top gaining sectoral
indices on the BSE were IT up by 1.72%, Bankex up by 1.71%, TECK up by 1.56%,
Capital Goods up by 0.71% and Consumer Durables was up by 0.56%, while Power
down by 1.34%, Utilities down by 1.34%, Oil & Gas down by 1.00%, Energy
down by 0.77%, Realty down by 0.77% were the top losing indices on BSE.

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Top gainers from the Sensex pack were Infosys up by 3.82%,
HDFC Bank 3.40%, HDFC 2.69%, HCL Tech 2.08%, ICICI Bank 1.90%, Kotak Mahindra
Bank 1.90%, Larsen & Toubro 1.90%, Bajaj Finance 1.69%. Dr Reddys Labs
1.31% and State Bank of India 1.09%.

Among the losers were Mahindra & Mahindra down by
1.40%, Asian Paints 0.80%, Reliance 0.54%, Wipro 0.47%, Bharti Airtel 0.41%,
Power Grid Corp 0.37%, Maruti Suzuki 0.32% and Axis Bank 0.24%.

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The Indian rupee depreciated 8 paise to close at 82.32
against the US dollar, as a strong American currency and risk-averse sentiment
among investors weighed on the local unit.

Asian markets ended settled mostly higher with the Shanghai
Composite up by 1.84%, the Hang Seng up by 1.21%, the Nikkei 225 by 3.25%, and
the KOSPI by 2.30%.

Also Read | US CPI Inflation eased to 8.2% in September, core index hits new four-decade high

European stock exchanges were trading in the positive
territory in mid-session deals. Wall Street had ended significantly higher on
Thursday.

Brent crude futures, the international oil benchmark
trading 0.81% lower at $93.80 per barrel.

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According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional
investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the Indian capital market on Thursday
as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,636.43 crore.