Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With the Navratri festival in full swing and ahead of the mega-IPO of Jio Platforms next week, India’s equity markets on Thursday went past recent volatility and acquired a green shade with Sensex and Nifty soaring 2.11% and 1.66%, respectively.
While Sensex rose 1533.72 points to close at 74315.61, Nifty gained 374.65 points to close at 22997.35.
The bull run took place a day after the IMF became the latest weathercock to upgrade India’s GDP growth to 7 per cent in 2026-27 and despite the uncertainties due to escalation of ongoing wars in the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine, the media reported.
The US-Russia ‘deal’ on diesel also became a positive sentiment on the market.
Despite the recent US steps on H1-B visas and green cards, the IT sector is not worried in India. On Thursday, the strength in the IT stocks followed the results of HCL Tech and the optimism surrounding that will hold the IT index strong.
Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty50 rebounded on Thursday after Wednesday’s decline, supported by gains in information technology (IT), auto and private banking stocks, which lifted sentiment on Dalal Street.
The Sensex surged more than 1,500 points, or 2 per cent, to hit an intraday high of 74,330. The Nifty 50 climbed over 400 points, or 1.90 per cent, to reclaim 23,000. The index made a high of 23,056.
Sectorally, the Nifty IT index led the gains, rising over 2.4 per cent. The Nifty Auto and Nifty Private Bank indices followed, advancing 1.71 per cent and 1.55 per cent, respectively. Buying interest also extended to the broader markets, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices gaining 0.38 per cent and 0.26 per cent, respectively.
Among Sensex constituents, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries and Maruti Suzuki were the top gainers, rising between 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent. Trent, Bharat Electronics, Power Grid Corporation of India and Titan were the only stocks trading in the red.
A heavy buying in IT stocks aided to the market’s rally. The Nifty IT index surged 2.4 per cent, extending the winning streak to the third straight session. The index has zoomed nearly 9 per cent in three sessions.
Nifty IT was the best-performing sectoral index, while Nifty PSU Bank was the worst.
The rally came even as global sentiment soured sharply. South Korea’s KOSPI plunged 7.7 per cent to 5,548.78, triggering a sidecar mechanism, an automatic five-minute suspension on programme sell orders, as losses in index futures deepened.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 4.56 per cent, further denting Asian sentiment. The rout followed Wall Street’s CPI-driven selloff, where the Nasdaq dropped 1.88 per cent and the S&P 500 fell 1.11 per cent.
Rupee appreciates
The Indian rupee appreciated 31 paise to 94.86 against the US dollar on Thursday, supported by the ongoing impact of the RBI’s structural forex interventions and liquidity-tightening measures. On Wednesday, the rupee appreciated 19 paise to close at 95.17 against the US dollar. Experts said that the unwinding of long dollar positions is also helping in the recovery.
Oil prices ease
Crude oil prices fell more than USD 1 as investors weighed the Strait of Hormuz supply risks against US moves to ease shipping costs. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading lower by 1.64 per cent at USD 104.3 per barrel in futures trade. WTI crude cracked 1.05 per cent to USD 4.09.