Sensex jumps 790 pts on buying in telecom and banking shares

PTI mumbai

Stock markets rose for the second consecutive day on Thursday with the benchmark Sensex jumping by nearly 790 points in a volatile session, driven by value buying in telecom, pharma and private banking shares.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 789.74 points, or 1.06%, to close at 75,398.72. The index opened higher but slipped into negative territory in late morning deals. However, value buying in telecom and banking shares helped the barometer pare losses and later jump more than 1,000 points to a high of 75,681.88. Extending gains to the second day, the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 277 points, or 1.18%, to finish at 23,689.60. 

Among Sensex firms, Bharti Airtel emerged as the biggest gainer, rallying over 5% after the telecom carrier's annual revenue crossed the ₹2 lakh crore mark for the first time. Eternal rose by 3.32% while HDFC Bank advanced 2.67%, emerging as the major contributor to the Sensex gains. Adani Ports, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan, Trent, UltraTech Cement, ITC and State Bank of India were among the other gainers.  

"Indian equities staged a counterintuitive recovery from intraday lows and ended higher despite the rupee hitting a record low and crude remaining elevated," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments Ltd, said. Nair added that investor confidence was bolstered in anticipation of potential government measures to mitigate INR weakness, including consideration of bond tax relief for foreign investors and potential tightening of the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS) to stem capital outflows. Positive cues from the Trump-Xi summit also anchored sentiment. 

The BSE SmallCap Select index rose 0.86%, and the MidCap Select index gained 0.40%. Among sectoral indices, Telecommunications rose the most by 2.87%, followed by Healthcare (2.08%), Metal (2.03%), Utilities (1.59%), Power (1.44%), and Top 10 Banks (1.40%). A total of 2,107 stocks advanced, while 2,076 declined and 190 remained unchanged on the BSE. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies climbed by ₹6.82 lakh crore to ₹462,85,684.68 crore ($4.83 trillion) in the last two trading sessions. 

Vikram Kasat, Head Advisory at PL Capital, said the Indian equity markets registered a sharp recovery on Thursday despite an uncertain opening due to positive global factors and relief from foreign fund outflows. Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Research, Wealth Management at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, noted that market focus is shifting back toward global macros and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s five-nation visit for potential announcements related to bilateral defence cooperation.