Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty surged by more than 2% on Wednesday on gains in index heavyweight Reliance Industries and HDFC twins as investors looked at diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The 30-share BSE Sensex opened the session in green and further climbed 1,469.64 points or 2.75% to 54,893.73 during the day. It finally closed 1,223.24 points or 2.29% higher at 54,647.33. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty climbed 331.90 points or 2.07% to close at 16,345.35.

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Among sectoral indices, except metal, all other sectors ended in green including capital goods, auto and realty indices were up 2-3%. BSE midcap and smallcap surged 2% each.

The major gainers on the Sensex pack were Asian Paints rising by 5.56%, Reliance Industries up by 5.24%, Bajaj Finance up by 5.13%, Mahindra & Mahindra up by 4.94%, IndusInd Bank up by 4.18%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.89%, Maruti Suzuki up by 3.30%, HDFC Bank up by 3.29% and UltraTech Cement up by 3.20%.

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Among the losers was Power Grid Corporation down by 1.89% followed by NTPC down by 1.57%, Tata Steel down by 1.15%, Nestle India down by 0.88% and Wipro down by 0.31%.

Aviation stocks were in great demand on Wednesday as after two years, India will resume regular international flights from March 27. Shares of InterGlobe Aviation surged 6.94% and SpiceJet zoomed 6.05%.

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Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo closed lower. The US stock exchanges closed in the negative territory on Tuesday’s session. The S&P 500 index and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to 1%.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 1.22% to USD 126.4 per barrel.

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According to exchange data, foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree in Indian markets as they sold shares worth Rs 8,142.60 crore on a net basis on Tuesday.

The rupee appreciated 44 paise to 76.56 against the US
dollar on Wednesday.