Indian equity benchmarks surged sharply on Wednesday, Sensex rallied nearly 630 points and Nifty surged over 860 points after sharp gains in IT and energy shares amid positive global market trends. Buying in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, Infosys, and Tata Consultancy Services and FII inflows bolstered the sentiment.

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Shares of firms engaged in oil exploration and refineries were in heavy demand, with Reliance Industries surging 2.47% and ONGC by 4%, as the government slashed windfall tax on petrol, diesel, jet fuel, and crude oil.

The BSE Sensex rallied 629.91 points or 1.15% to settle at 55,397.53. During the day, it jumped 862 points, or 1.57% to 55,630.85. The NSE Nifty jumped 180.30 points or 1.10% to 16,520.85.

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The broader indices ended in green with the BSE Mid cap index being down by 0.25%, while the Small cap index was down by 0.42%. On the sectoral front, IT is up by 2.58%, TECK up by 1.99%, Metal up by 1.35%, FMCG up by 1.13%, and Energy up by 0.91%, while Telecom is down by 0.50%, Power down by 0.50%, Utilities down by 0.44%, Realty down by 0.34% and Auto down by 0.31% were the top losing indices on BSE.

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Major gainers from the Sensex pack were Tech Mahindra up by 3.84%, HCL Tech up by 3.08%, TCS up by 2.89%, Reliance up by 2.47%, SBI up by 2.13%, Infosys up by 2.02%, Wipro up by 1.63%, Hindustan Unilever up by 1.55%, Titan Company up by 1.39%, HDFC Bank up by 1.34%.

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Among the losers were M&M down by 1.81%, Sun Pharma down by 0.87%, Kotak Mahindra down by 0.48%, Bharti Airtel down by 0.40%, Power Grid Corp down by 0.31%, Bajaj Finserv down by 0.22%, Asian Paints down by 0.21% and NTPC down by 0.10%.

The rupee declined 13 paise to close at 80.05 for the first time against the US dollar.

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In Asia, markets in Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Hong Kong closed significantly higher tracking overnight gains in US markets. European markets were trading mostly higher during mid-session deals.

“The sharp 8% pullback in Nifty from June lows of 15,183 is all set to continue aided by a flood of good news. First, the US markets have rebounded sharply driven by impressive corporate earnings. Second, FPI selling appears to have bottomed out. FPIs have bought 5 days this month.

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“Third, the relief announced by the government for the petroleum sector through a reduction in windfall tax and cuts in duties on exports will be a major boost for the sector, particularly for RIL,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

On Wednesday, the government slashed the windfall tax on petrol, diesel, jet fuel, and crude oil following a decline in international rates.

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Brent crude, the international oil benchmark declined 1.17% to $106.1 per barrel.

According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors remained net buyers on Tuesday picking up shares worth Rs 976.40 crore.