Sensex jumps over 350 points, Nifty hovers near 19,800; Laxmi Organic, DCW, GHCL jump up to 8%

Indian equity benchmarks traded higher in Wednesday’s early trade, led by gains across all sectors. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack rose 369 points or 0.56 per cent to trade at 66,449, while the NSE Nifty moved 105 points or 0.53 per cent up to trade at 19,795.

Broader market (mid- and small-cap) shares were positive as Nifty Midcap 100 climbed 0.79 per cent and small-cap gained 0.89 per cent.

On the global front, Asian markets opened higher tracking an overnight rise in Wall Street indices. Easing US interest rate concerns following further dovish comments by key Federal Reserve officials and stability in oil prices boosted investor sentiment.

Back home, market participants also await the September quarter earnings of India’s IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Rs 1,005 crore of shares on a net basis during the previous session, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought Rs 1,963 crore of stocks, exchange data showed. FIIs remained net seller for 15th consecutive session.

“Even though FIIs are sustained sellers in the market, buying by DIIs, HNIs and retail are counterbalancing the selling and supporting the market. Safety is in large-caps,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

All the 15 sector gauges — compiled by the NSE — were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Auto were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 0.63 per cent, 0.67 per cent and 0.49 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Dr Reddy’s was the top gainer in the Nifty pack as the stock jumped 1.45 per cent to trade at Rs 5,558. ICICI Bank, Apollo Hospitals, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto gained up to 0.95 per cent.

In contrast, Coal India, SBI Life, PowerGrid and Britannia were among the top laggards.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,177 shares were advancing while 453 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, index heavyweights such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Infosys, L&T, Reliance Industries, ITC and Axis Bank were among the top gainers.

Also, Laxmi Organic Industries, DCW, GHCL, HBL Power and KPIT Tech surged up to 8.26 per cent. On the flipside, Bank of Baroda, Oil India, Vaibhav Global, AIA Engineering and Sobha slipped up to 1.82 per cent.

Nifty outlook

“A higher opening above our pivot of 19,545 ended up with a close above the upper extremity of the broadening wedge which had kept the price in a bearish channel so far. Ideally this sets up environment for a strong push to 19,900 and much beyond, but we see the prospects of bears regrouping, if 19,780 holds. With this in perspective, dips may be bought today, but expect upside attempts to lose strength, if unable to float above 19,656,” said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.