Sensex Rises Over 250 Points, Nifty Above 17,500 Led By HDFC Twins

The Indian equity benchmarks edged higher on Wednesday led by gains in HDFC, HDFC Bank, ITC, Ultratech Cement, Larsen & Toubro and ICICI Bank amid positive global cues. The Sensex rose as much as 382 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 17,550. Asian shares were mostly higher on Wednesday, with U.S. corporate earnings aiding sentiment, while traders awaited British inflation readings later in the day for clues on how hawkish central banks need to be to fight inflation.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.2 per cent, but further gains were capped by slight falls in Chinese shares. China's mainland bluechips lost 0.2 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Sang index fell 0.1 per cent, news agency Reuters reported.

As of 9:20 am, the Sensex was up 278 points at 59,239 and Nifty 50 index advanced 69 points to 17,556.

Overnight, stocks closed broadly higher again on Wall Street Tuesday, adding to weekly gains for major indexes that have been mired in a broad slump amid inflation and recession concerns.

The S&P 500 rose 1.1 per cent, with roughly 90 per cent of the stocks in the benchmark index notching gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1 per cent and the Nasdaq composite ended 0.9 per cent higher.

Back home, eleven of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Financial Services 0.8 per cent gain. Nifty Auto, Bank, Pharma, Private Bank and Healthcare indices also rose over 0.5 per cent each.

On the other hand, select IT, Media, Metal and PSU Banking stocks were facing selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were witnessing a mild buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.3 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.4 per cent.

HDFC was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3 per cent to Rs 2,403. HDFC Bank, Power Grid, Cipla, Bajaj Auto, Larsen & Toubro, Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, UPL, Titan, Bharat Petroleum and HDFC Life were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,852 shares were advancing while 756 were declining on the BSE.