India’s benchmark equity indices opened sharply higher on Wednesday, with the Sensex jumping as much as 657.85 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 77,423.77, while the Nifty 50 gained 191.3 points to open at 24,176.65.
The rally was led by IT stocks, with Infosys surging 3.89 per cent to top the gainers’ list, while L&T, TCS, Hindustan Unilever and Tech Mahindra also posted strong gains in early trade.
The Nifty IT index climbed as much as 2.51 per cent, while the Nifty FMCG index rose 1.52 per cent, as broader sectoral gains helped push the market higher despite weak cues from several Asian markets.
Power Grid was the top loser in early trade, down 0.67 per cent, while IndiGo parent InterGlobe Aviation, Asian Paints, Maruti and Titan also slipped.
Market breadth was strongly positive, with 1,837 stocks advancing against 550 declining and 103 remaining unchanged on the BSE.
The rally came as crude oil prices rebounded after falling around 14 per cent over three sessions, with the earlier slide having been driven by an escalation in tensions between the United States and Iran.
Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth ₹755.33 crore on July 28, while domestic institutional investors purchased ₹1,664.16 crore worth of equities the same day, continuing a recent trend of steady domestic buying.
Investors were also awaiting a policy announcement from the US Federal Reserve later in the day, a factor that added a note of caution even as domestic indices extended their gains.
The previous session on Tuesday had seen the Sensex close flat at 76,765.92 and the Nifty 50 settle at 23,985.35, as a fragile pause in US-Iran hostilities kept investors on edge.
Market watchers said the rebound in crude oil, after three straight sessions of sharp declines, had eased some of the concerns that had weighed on Indian equities earlier in the week amid the ongoing US-Iran tensions.
(Image: “BSE building at Dalal Street” by BSEINDIA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
