Sensex Jumps 621 Points, Ends Atop 78,650; Nifty Holds 23,850; RIL Rallies 4%

Sensex Today: Bull run extended on the bourses on Wednesday as investors latched on to heavyweights like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Ultratech Cement, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Finance, Maruti Suzuki, ITC, and L&T.

The BSE Sensex touched a record high of 78,759, while the Nifty50 scaled 23,890 in the intraday trade.

The BSE benchmark, eventually, closed at 78,674, up 621 points or 0.8 per cent. The NSE counterpart, meanwhile, ended at 23,869, up 148 points or 0.62 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap slipped 0.29 per cent, while the BSE SmallCap rose 0.15 per cent.

Among sectors, the Nifty Media edged 1.6 per cent higher, followed by the Nifty Bank index (up 0.5 per cent), which hit a record high of 52,958.90 in the intraday trade. The Nifty, Metal, Realty, and Auto indices, on the contrary, slipped up to 1.4 per cent.

Market View| V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services

“A constant refrain during the last few months from many experienced investment experts has been that financials, particularly largecap private banks, offer value buying opportunities. The expected breakout in some of these bluechips has happened during the last several days. These stocks are likely to remain resilient since their FY25 Q1 numbers will be very good. The 16% credit growth in the economy and improving asset quality of these stocks augur well for them. Slight pressure on margins due to slow deposit growth and higher costs of deposits are unlikely to impact the bottom line significantly. From the valuation perspective, PSU banks now provide buying opportunities. Q1 results of financials, oil and gas, capital goods, automobiles, select pharma and telecom will be good. FMCG and IT will post subdued numbers as expected. There are green shoots in IT and, therefore, it presents a contra buying opportunity for long-term investors.”

Global Cues

Asian stocks wavered in choppy early trade on Wednesday as markets braced for a key US inflation reading. Meanwhile, the yen hovered just below the 160 per dollar level, keeping traders on alert for potential intervention by Japanese authorities

The Nasdaq rallied 1.3% on Tuesday, buoyed by strength in Nvidia and other tech megacaps, while the Dow slipped as retailers weighed and investors waited for crucial inflation data due out this week.