Sensex, Nifty rally on Wednesday as IT stocks lead gains

Sensex and Nifty rallied in opening trade on Wednesday, with the Sensex up 657.85 points, or 0.85 per cent, at 77,423.77, and the Nifty 50 gaining 191.3 points to 24,176.65.

Infosys was the top gainer among Sensex stocks, rising 3.89 per cent, while L&T, TCS, Hindustan Unilever and Tech Mahindra also advanced.

The Nifty IT index rose as much as 2.51 per cent and the Nifty FMCG index gained 1.52 per cent, even as weakness persisted in several Asian markets.

Power Grid led the losers, down 0.67 per cent, while InterGlobe Aviation, Asian Paints, Maruti and Titan also declined in early trade.

Market breadth was strongly positive, with 1,837 stocks advancing against 550 declining and 103 unchanged on the BSE.

The rally came as crude oil prices rebounded after falling roughly 14 per cent over three sessions amid escalating US-Iran tensions.

Foreign institutional investors bought ₹755.33 crore worth of shares on July 28, while domestic institutional investors purchased ₹1,664.16 crore worth of equities the same day.

Investors stayed cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy announcement due later in the day, even as domestic indices extended their gains.

The gains followed Tuesday’s flat close, when the Sensex settled at 76,765.92 and the Nifty at 23,985.35 amid a fragile US-Iran pause.

India VIX, the market’s volatility gauge, had cooled to 12.56 in the previous session, down 0.79 per cent, aided by a firmer rupee and easing concerns over the US-Iran standoff.

Sustained buying by domestic institutional investors in recent sessions has also been credited with cushioning Indian markets against bouts of volatility driven by global cues.

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)