Sensex Rallies Over 1,000 Points, Nifty Trades Above 16,900; IT, Financial Stocks Surge

Indian equity benchmarks on Thursday rallied in afternoon deals, led by strong buying interest in technology and financial stocks. Domestic indices started on a higher note today and further extended their gains for the second straight session, tracking Asian peers. Trends on the Nifty Futures on Singapore Exchange (SGX Nifty) indicated a gap-up start for the domestic indices.

Stocks in Asia made cautious gains as investors scented a possible slowdown in the pace of U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

Fed raised rates by 75 basis points (bps), but its chair Jerome Powell dropped guidance on the size of the next rate hike and noted that "at some point," it would be appropriate to slow down.

Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 1,006 points or 1.80 per cent to 56,822 in the afternoon trade, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 274 points or 1.65 per cent higher to trade at 16,916.

Mid- and small-cap shares were positive as Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.84 per cent and small-cap climbed 0.75 per cent.

13 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty IT, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Bank were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 2.54 per cent, 2.05 per cent and 1.42 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Bajaj Finance was the top Nifty gainer as the stock soared 9.45 per cent to Rs 7,000.75. Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, Nestle India and IndusInd Bank were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was strong as 1,964 shares were advancing while 1,209 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel, Nestle India, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Wipro, Asian Paints, TCS and HCL Technologies were among the top gainers.

Also, shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country's biggest insurer and largest domestic financial investor, rose 0.38 per cent to trade at Rs 677.05.

In contrast, Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and L&T were trading in the red.

Further, shares of budget airline SpiceJet fell as much as 5.22 per cent after the aviation regulator DGCA ordered the carrier to slash its approved fleet to 50 per cent this summer for eight weeks, citing multiple safety snags. The stock tanked 9.66 per cent to its 52-week low of Rs 34.60 during intraday trade.

Sensex had surged 548 points or 0.99 per cent to close at 55,816 on Wednesday, while Nifty had moved 158 points or 0.96 per cent higher to settle at 16,642.