Equity benchmarks rose for the third straight session on Wednesday as financial and technology stocks witnessed huge buying interest, pushing the indices up nearly 2%.
The 30-share Sensex gained 605.64 points, or 1.89%, to close at 32,720.16. The index has gained nearly 1,400 points in the last three trading sessions.
The gains on Wednesday were led by the HDFC twins — HDFC and HDFC Bank — followed by stocks like HCL Technologies, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, Infosys and TCS. The broader Nifty ended the day at 9,553.35, gaining 172.45 points, or 1.84%. The India VIX index dipped a little over 4% on Wednesday.
Falling virus cases
“Falling rates of new COVID-19 cases, combined central bank and government actions and partial opening up of economy across the world has lifted the sentiments globally,” said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Going ahead, markets are likely to react to earnings, trend in coronavirus cases, oil price and currency movement along with global events” added Mr. Khemka.
While the overnight U.S. markets gained over 2%, equity benchmarks of Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and China all gained ground on Wednesday.
Incidentally, foreign portfolio investors turned net buyers in India on Wednesday after ending most sessions in the recent past as net sellers. Overseas investors were net buyers at ₹722 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional numbers.
The overall market breadth was also strong with nearly 1,400 stocks gaining ground as against 961 that declined.
Most of the broader indices ended in positive territory, with both BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices gaining over 1% each.
