Sensex increases by 617 Points, while the Nifty ends above 15,950

Wednesday saw a significant increase in Indian equity benchmarks, driven mostly by increases in the financial, consumer, and auto sectors. The recent drop in crude oil prices added to investors’ optimism.

After falling by 9.5% in the previous session, the price of Brent crude futures was trading just around $104 per barrel. As opposed to yesterday, when US crude futures ended below $100 for the first time since late April, they were slightly higher today, maintaining their above-$100 level.

However, due to continuing worries about a worldwide recession, markets in Asia fell today.

At home, the broad NSE Nifty rose 179 points or 1.13 percent to conclude at 15,990, while the 30-share BSE Sensex increased by 617 points or 1.16 percent to close at 53,751.

Mid- and small-cap equities ended the day well, with the Nifty Midcap 100 soaring 1.90% and the small-cap index rising 0.49%.

The National Stock Exchange’s 15 sector gauges, which it compiled, finished in the green in 14 of them. The NSE platform was outpaced by the sub-indices Nifty Financial Services, Nifty FMCG, Nifty Consumer Durables, and Nifty Auto, which saw gains of up to 3.12%, 2.64 %, 2.35 %, and 2.60 %, respectively.

Nifty Oil & Gas, on the other hand, displayed some weakness by dropping as much as 0.17 percent.

The top Nifty gainer in terms of individual stocks was Bajaj Finance, whose share price increased 4.75 percent to 5,930. Among the winners were Bajaj Finserv, Britannia, Hindustan Unilever, and Eicher Motors.

A positive market breadth was observed overall, with 1,840 equities on the BSE rising and 1,463 falling.

Asian Paints, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Nestle India, M&M, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement, and SBI were among the top gainers on the 30-share BSE index, with their shares rising as much as 4.54 percent.

Additionally, shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the largest domestic financial investor and insurer in the nation, rose 0.04 percent higher to close at Rs 703.05.

The results were negative for PowerGrid, NTPC, Reliance Industries, L&T, and Tata Steel.