The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes rallied to fresh intraday highs in afternoon trading led by gains in banking and information technology heavyweights such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Axis Bank. The Sensex surged as much as 824 points and the Nifty 50 index moved above its important psychological level of 9,250.
As of 1:55 pm, the Sensex was up 816 points or 2.66 per cent at 31,425 and the Nifty 50 index climbed 225 points or 2.49 per cent to 9,254.
HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys and TCS collectively contributed over 350 points towards gain in the Sensex.
Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher, led by the Nifty Bank index’s 3.6 per cent gain. Nifty Financial Services, IT, PSU Bank, Private Bank and Realty indexes also rose 1-3.7 per cent each.
On the other hand, Nifty Media index was top loser, down 0.6 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were underperforming their larger peers; Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.07 per cent, while Nifty Smallcap 100 index was up 0.3 per cent.
Axis Bank was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose per cent to Rs 359.30. Grasim Industries, ICICI Bank, UPL, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharat Petroleum, Wipro and Bharti Infratel were also among the gainers.
On the flip side, UltraTech Cement, Indian Oil, Zee Entertainment, Titan, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Mahindra & Mahindra and Asian Paints were among the losers.
