Indian equity benchmarks extended gains in midday trades led by strong buying interest in banks and financial services heavyweights such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Banks Kotak Mahindra, Bajaj Finance and State Bank of India. Sensex rallied to 277 points and Nifty 50 moved closer to the psychologically important 17,600. Benchmarks started off on the volatile side amid mixed global signals.
As of 12:45 p.m., Sensex was up 224 points to 58,888 and the Nifty 50 index was up 82 points to 17,585.
Ten of 15 industry measures compiled by the National Stock Exchange traded higher, led by a 1.7% gain in the Nifty PSU Bank index. The Private Banking, Media, Banking, Financial Services, Real Estate and Oil and Gas indexes also traded with gains of more than 1%.
Nifty Energy stat increased by 1.45%. Oil prices were in the spotlight after India said it would sell 5 million barrels to Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp.
On the other hand, healthcare, IT, pharmaceutical, auto and FMCG stocks experienced slight selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap stocks outperformed their peers as the Nifty Midcap 100 index gained 0.7% while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index gained 1.5%.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel jumped 3.02% to a record high, while Vodafone Idea jumped 5.19% to its highest level in more than a month following the tax hike announcement.
ONGC is the top Nifty gainer, shares are up 5% to Rs 155.
Adani Ports, ICICI Bank, Coal India, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance and Kotak Mahindra Bank also increased by 2-5%.
On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Cipla, Tata Consumer Products, Divi’s Labs, Grasim Industries, Eicher Motors, Sun Pharma and Mahindra & Mahindra are among the losers.
Market breadth was quite positive with 2,342 shares gaining while 834 stocks declined on BSE.
