Indian stock markets extended their rally for the seventh straight session on Wednesday, driven largely by strong gains in IT stocks.
The Sensex opened on a firm note, surging 548 points to reach 80,142 and later touched an intraday high of 80,255. However, selling pressure in banking stocks dragged the index into negative territory briefly, hitting a low of 79,507. Eventually, it recovered and ended the day with a gain of 521 points at 80,116 — marking a new calendar year high. Over the past seven sessions, the Sensex has gained 8.5 per cent or 6,269 points.
Similarly, the Nifty opened strong at 24,359, dropped to a low of 24,120 during the day, and closed 162 points higher at 24,329. The benchmark index has now added 8.6 per cent or 1,930 points in the last seven trading days.
The highlight of the session was a sharp rally in IT stocks. HCL Technologies surged nearly 8 per cent after the company reported an 8.1 per cent rise in net profit and a 6.1 per cent increase in revenue for the fourth quarter, marking its best single-day gain since September 2019. Other IT majors also rallied — Tech Mahindra rose 5 per cent, Infosys gained 4 per cent, and TCS added 2.5 per cent.
Beyond IT, several heavyweights ended in the green, including Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Maruti, Nestle India, and Larsen & Toubro.
On the flip side, banking stocks witnessed profit booking. Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI, and Axis Bank declined between 1 to 2 per cent.
In the broader market, the BSE MidCap index advanced 1 per cent, while the SmallCap index edged up by 0.2 per cent.
Among sectoral indices, the Nifty IT index was the top performer, rising 4.3 per cent. The auto index gained 2.5 per cent, while the pharma and realty sectors rose 1.4 per cent each.
Analysts attributed the market optimism to strong global cues and robust corporate earnings.
“The positive undertone was largely driven by strong quarterly results and a rally on Wall Street, where US indices surged following reassuring remarks from President Donald Trump regarding Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and the ongoing trade negotiations with China,” said Sundar Kewat of Ashika Institutional Equity.
—IANS