India’s equity benchmarks created a gap that opened on Wednesday ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy decision later in the day. Sensex rallied more than 700 points and the Nifty 50 index regained its psychologically important level of 17,350, led by gains in rate-sensitive banking, financial services and real estate stocks. Analysts expect the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee to keep interest rates at record lows while maintaining its accommodative stance.
As of 9:28 a.m., the Sensex was up 1.2% or 685 points at 58,318 and the Nifty 50 index was up 207 points or 1.2% to 17,383.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks extended gains on Wednesday, continuing a global rally as markets found positive news in initial reports on the potential impact of the Omicron variant, although overnight advances in oil prices began to ease.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3% and Japan’s Nikkei gained 1%. US S&P 500 futures rose 0.25%.
Economists and market participants say investor sentiment has been buoyed by hopes that the Reserve Bank of India is likely to stop raising key borrowing and lending rates on Wednesday, as it imposes Use a cautious tone amid the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Fifty economists surveyed by Reuters in a December 1-3 poll expect the RBI to keep the benchmark repo rate at 4.00%.
Buying was widespread as all 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange traded higher, led by a 2.2% gain in the Nifty IT index. The Nifty Bank, Financial Services, Automotive, Private Banking, Realty and Oil and Gas indexes also gained more than 1%.
Small and mid-cap stocks were also interested in buying, with the Nifty Midcap 100 index up 1% and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index up 1.4%.
Wipro is the top gainer Nifty, shares are up 2.84% to Rs 650. HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finserv also increased by 1.5-2.6%.
On the other hand, NTPC, Hindalco and Coal India were among the notable losers.
Market breadth was extremely positive with 2,085 shares advancing while 506 stocks fell on the BSE.
