Indian equity benchmarks opened strongly on Wednesday, with the Sensex climbing 657.85 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 77,423.77 and the Nifty 50 rising 191.3 points to 24,176.65.
IT heavyweights led the charge, with Infosys gaining 3.89 per cent, while L&T, TCS, Hindustan Unilever and Tech Mahindra also featured among the day’s top performers.
Sectoral indices reflected the broad-based rally, with Nifty IT up as much as 2.51 per cent and Nifty FMCG rising 1.52 per cent even as several Asian markets traded weaker.
On the losing side, Power Grid fell 0.67 per cent to lead declines, with InterGlobe Aviation, Asian Paints, Maruti and Titan also among the stocks under pressure.
Market breadth favoured buyers by a wide margin, with 1,837 advancing stocks against 550 decliners and 103 unchanged counters on the BSE.
The upswing followed a rebound in crude oil prices after a roughly 14 per cent decline over three sessions triggered by rising US-Iran tensions.
Institutional flows added to the positive mood, with foreign institutional investors buying ₹755.33 crore and domestic institutional investors purchasing ₹1,664.16 crore worth of shares on July 28.
Traders remained watchful ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision due later in the day, even as the domestic market pushed higher in early deals.
The gains came a day after the Sensex ended flat at 76,765.92 and the Nifty settled at 23,985.35 on Tuesday, with a fragile US-Iran truce keeping sentiment cautious.
Volatility gauge India VIX had eased to 12.56 in the previous session on July 28, down 0.79 per cent, continuing a downward trend that analysts linked to a firmer rupee and calmer sentiment around the US-Iran situation.
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.
(Image: “BSE building at Dalal Street” by BSEINDIA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
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