The Indian stock market witnessed a positive start on Wednesday, with both the benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, making significant gains in early trade. The Sensex, India’s key equity index, surged by 273.65 points to reach 74,957.35 in early trading hours. This upward movement indicates a strong opening for the stock market. In tandem with the Sensex, the Nifty, representing the broader market sentiment, advanced by 83.85 points to reach 22,726.60 during early trading sessions.
Gainers and losers
Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, and State Bank of India led the gainers from the Sensex basket. However, HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, UltraTech Cement, and Wipro witnessed a decline in their share prices.
Global market trends
While Tokyo and Shanghai experienced a dip in trading, Hong Kong remained in positive territory. Wall Street closed with mostly gains on Tuesday.
Market analysis
Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd., attributed the market’s positive performance to factors such as expectations of robust Q4 corporate earnings and a pre-election rally.
Oil prices and foreign investments
Global oil benchmark Brent crude edged up by 0.04 per cent to reach USD 89.46 a barrel. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were observed to have offloaded equities worth Rs 593.20 crore on Tuesday.
Expert opinion
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, highlighted a notable trend in the market, emphasizing the outperformance of fundamentally strong large-cap stocks over mid and small-caps. He expressed optimism about this trend continuing, attributing it to the overall health of the market.
Previous day’s performance
On Tuesday, the BSE benchmark saw a marginal decline of 58.80 points, settling at 74,683.70, after breaching the historic 75,000-mark for the first time during the trading session. Similarly, the NSE Nifty dipped by 23.55 points to close at 22,642.75, despite hitting a record peak of 22,768.40 intra-day.
Also read | Bank holidays in April 2024: Banking services disrupted for 5 days this week | Check list here
