Sensex Gains Over 500 Points, Nifty Trades Above 17,100; Adani Ports, Indian Oil, Bajaj Finance Among Top Gainers
New Delhi: The Indian equity benchmarks surged on Thursday led by gains in Adani Ports, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Bajaj Finance amid positive global cues. A share rally continued in early Asian trading and the safe-haven dollar was on the back foot as markets took cheer from positive signs about the impact of the omicron variant of Covid-19 and U.S. economic data. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.3 per cent and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6 per cent, marking a third successive session of gains. Overnight the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.74 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 1.02 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.18 per cent.
Back home, as of 9:56 am, the 30-share Sensex pack was up 506 points or 0.89 per cent at 57,437 and the broader NSE Nifty moved 148 points or 0.88 per cent higher to 17,104.
Mid- and small-cap shares were trading in green as Nifty Midcap 100 index was up 0.87 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 1.04 per cent.
On the stock-specific front, Bajaj Finance was the top Nifty gainer as the stock jumped 2.64 per cent to Rs 6,950.05. Adani Ports, IOC, Power Grid Co and Wipro were also among the gainers.
On the flipside, Divi's Lab, UPL and Asian Paints were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,222 shares were advancing while 652 were declining on BSE.
On the BSE platform, Bajaj Finance, Wipro, Power Grid Co, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, ITC and NTPC attracted the most gains with their shares rising as much as 2.45 per cent in early trade.
Sensex had jumped 612 points or 1.09 per cent to close at 56,931 on Wednesday; while the broader NSE Nifty has moved 185 points or 1.10 per cent up to settle at 16,955.
Both the BSE and NSE indices had surged nearly a per cent, respectively, on Tuesday after tumbling as much as 3 per cent on Monday.
