Indian equity benchmarks were trading significantly higher
with Sensex and Nifty crossing 58,500 and 17,450 levels in the noon session due
to heavy buying in Telecom, Basic Materials and TECK stocks. Gains in frontline
blue chip stocks such as Ultratech Cement, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel also
helped to lift the markets.

Traders remain charged as Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) decided to hike the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.4%, crossing the
pre-pandemic level of 5.15%. MPC decided to focus on withdrawal of
accommodation to keep inflation within target while supporting growth.

The Sensex is trading at 58,436.94, down by up 138.14
points or 0.23% after trading in a range of 58,649.19 and 58,326.96. On the
index, 23 stocks advanced and 7 stocks declined.

The broader indices were trading in green with the BSE Mid
cap index up by 0.38%, while Small cap index was up by 0.69%. The gaining
sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 1.73%, Basic Materials up by
1.12%, TECK up by 1.10%, Bankex up by 0.96% and IT was up by 0.94%, while Oil
& Gas down by 0.47%, Consumer Durables down by 0.42%, Auto down by 0.31%,
Energy down by 0.21% and Utilities was down by 0.08% were the top losing
indices on BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Ultratech Cement up by
2.42%, ICICI Bank up by 2.03%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.94%, SBI up by 1.45% and
Infosys was up by 1.40%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.18%,
Reliance Industries down by 1.02%, Sun Pharma down by 0.30%, Indusind Bank down
by 0.24% and HDFC was down by 0.23% were the top losers.

The Nifty is trading at 17,411.40, up by 29.40 points or 0.18%
after trading in a range of 17,474.40 and 17,381.40.  On the index, 32 stocks advanced and 18 stocks
declined.

The top gainers on Nifty were Ultratech Cement up by 2.49%,
ICICI Bank up by 2.03%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.92%, Grasim Industries up by
1.69% and SBI was up by 1.44%. On the flip side, Hindalco down by 1.24%, Maruti
Suzuki down by 1.16%, Reliance Industries down by 0.98%, Eicher Motors down by
0.87% and Apollo Hospital was down by 0.82% were the top losers.

Asian markets were trading mostly in green with Shanghai
Composite gaining 33.08 points or 1.04% to 3,222.12, Straits Times advanced
12.15 points or 0.37% to 3,282.01, Nikkei 225 surged 243.67 points or 0.87% to
28,175.87, Jakarta Composite soared 13.22 points or 0.19% to 7,070.57, KOSPI
rose 17.69 points or 0.72% to 2,490.80, Hang Seng increased 77.13 points or
0.38% to 20,251.17 and Taiwan Weighted was up by 333.84 points or 2.27% to
15,036.04.