Sensex, Nifty Rise As Markets Swing In A Wide Range

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes resumed the upmove in intraday deals after swinging in a wide range led by gains in ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC, Infosys and Sun Pharma. In the morning deals, the Sensex surged as much as 572 points but turned flat in noon trading. The Sensex swung in a range of nearly 600 points while the Nifty touched an intraday high of 11,317 and low of 11,152. Analysts say that benchmarks are witnessing high volatility on fears of rising coronavirus cases in the country after the government on Monday said that the toll of total cases rose to 5.

As of 1:15 pm, the Sensex traded 140 points or 0.4 per cent higher at 38,284 and the Nifty rose 0.7 per cent or 75 points to 11,207.

Expectations that major central banks would take measures to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak also helped boost investor sentiment.

All the 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index's 3.5 per cent gain. Nifty Pharma, Media and IT indexes also rose between 1-3.3 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.75 per cent.

Cipla was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 5.6 per cent to Rs 425. Vedanta, Zee Entertainment, Hindalco, Eicher Motors, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's Labs, Sun Pharma, JSW Steel, Grasim Industries and Coal India were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Bajaj Finserv, ITC, Titan, Yes Bank, HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the laggards.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,029 shares were advancing while 1,163 were declining on the BSE.