The stock market on Wednesday ended on a strong note amid buying across sectors, except for the power and FMCG sectors.
At the close, the Sensex was up 940.73 points, or 1.22 per cent, at 77,958.52, and the Nifty was up 298.15 points, or 1.24 per cent, at 24,330.95. Broader markets outperformed the benchmark, with the Nifty Mid, Smallcap indices rising nearly 2% each.
The Indian rupee staged a strong recovery in today’s session after hitting a fresh low of 95.43 in the previous session, closing higher by 68 paise at 94.61 against the previous close of 95.29 per dollar.
The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms jumped to Rs 473 lakh crore from below Rs 467 lakh crore in the previous session.
Among the sectors, except power, FMCG, energy, all other sectoral indices ended in the green, with auto, media, private bank, PSU Bank, realty, metal, and pharma up 1-2%.
On the Nifty, key gainers were Interglobe Aviation, Trent, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Shriram Finance, and Asian Paints. While on the losing end were ONGC, L&T, Reliance Industries, Power Grid Corp and NTPC.
More than 160 stocks touched their 52-week highs on the BSE. These included HFCL, Bank of Maharashtra, Marico, Aditya Birla Capital, Data Patterns, SAIL, Natco Pharma, Adani Green Energy, Vardhman Textiles, Nestle India, Syrma SGS, Cummins, Lloyds Metals, Apar Industries, Kirloskar Oil, J&K Bank, Hitachi Energy, and Schneider Infra, among others.
The key OMCs, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation, advanced 5.5% and 4.6%, respectively.
Ather Energy, Vardhman Textiles, and Gallantt Ispat dropped 4.3%, 4.1%, and 3.7%, respectively.
Brent Crude prices crashed 6% to trade near $103 per barrel amid news flows suggesting the Middle East conflict was nearing its end.