Sensex surges over 400 points while Nifty around 17,400 in early trade

The Sensex rose more than 400 points in early trade on Wednesday, tracking advances in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, and ICICI Bank amid a broadly favourable trend in global stocks.

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The 30-share BSE benchmark was trading 427.26 points higher at 58,416.56, extending the previous day’s rise. Similarly, the NSE Nifty advanced 126.9 points to 17,442.40.

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Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries Limited, SBI, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top gainers in early trade from the 30-share pack. Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki India, and Infosys, on the other hand, were among the laggards.

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The BSE Sensex finished up 696.81 points, or 1.22%, at 57,989.30 in the previous session. The Nifty rose 197.90 points, or 1.16%, to 17,315.50.

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In mid-session trades, equity markets in Seoul, Hong Kong, and Tokyo were trading higher, while Shanghai quoted modestly down. In the overnight session, stock markets in the United States finished mostly higher.

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“There are two significant trends in the market now. One, 17,000 Nifty has now become a strong technical support for the market. The sharp bounce from the 17,000 levels yesterday indicates that this is a strong support level now. Two, there is heavy delivery-based buying in high-quality stocks like TCS, Infosys, ITC and select financials. This indicates the return of risk-on in the market,” according to V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

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According to stock market statistics, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net purchasers on Tuesday, purchasing shares worth Rs 384.48 crore.

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Meanwhile, Brent crude, the worldwide oil benchmark, rose 1.57% to USD 117.3 a barrel. In early trade, the rupee climbs 19 paise to 75.99 against the US dollar.