Sensex, Nifty Snap Two-Day Losing Streak Led By Reliance, Bajaj Finance

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a strong rebound and snapped their two-day losing streak on Tuesday led by gains in Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India, Titan and Bharti Airtel. The Sensex rose as much as 862 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 17,200. The markets staged a gap up opening mirroring gains in other Asian markets and steadily built on the gains later in the session on account of short covering rally.

The Sensex rose 777 points to close at 57,357 and Nifty 50 index advanced 247 points to settle at 17,201.

The Sensex and Nifty fell over 1 per cent each the last two sessions as prospects of aggressive rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve and surging inflation hit risk appetite.

Buying was visible across sectors as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Realty index's 3.6 per cent gain. Nifty Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, PSU Bank, Pharma, Metal, Media, FMCG, Auto and Financial Services indices also rose between 1-2.8 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares also staged a strong recovery with both the indices rising over 1 per cent each on the National Stock Exchange.

Among the individual shares, edible oil maker Adani Wilmar's market capitalisation crossed Rs 1 lakh crore-mark on Tuesday with its shares locked in 5 per cent upper circuit at Rs 802.80 on the BSE. On the National Stock Exchange, Adani Wilmar shares rose by their daily maximum limit of 5 per cent to hit record high of Rs 803.15.

Adani Wilmar shares have been witnessing strong buying interest ever since Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February which led to disruption in edible oil markets as Ukraine and Russia are major producer of sunflower oil. Another boost in the arm for Adani Wilmar came after Indonesia, the world's leading producer of palm oil, imposed ban on exports of palm oil to insulate itself from the rising inflation.

Adani Ports was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 6.14 per cent to close at Rs 912.30. Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Power Grid, Titan, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Tata Consumer Products, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries and Cipla also rose between 2.65-6 per cent each.

On the flipside, ONGC, Apollo Hospitals, Axis Bank, Hindalco, Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints, TCS and Wipro were among the notable losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,954 shares ended higher while 1,440 closed lower on the BSE.