Sensex Rises Over 300 Points, Nifty Above 18,150 Led By Infosys, Reliance, ICICI Bank

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Wednesday led by gains in index heavyweights like Infosys, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC, State Bank of India and Bajaj Finance amid strong global cues. The Sensex rose as much as 428 points and Nifty 50 index was trading firmly above its important psychological level of on 18,150.

As of 9:24 am, the Sensex rose 306 points to 60,923 and Nifty 50 index advanced 96 points to 18,151.

Japan's Nikkei jumped nearly 2 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.77 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI climbed 1.4 per cent.

Overnight, US stocks bounced and Treasury yields retreated on Tuesday in choppy trade as investors absorbed remarks from the Federal Reserve that interest rates are likely to rise this year, as expected. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.51 per cent, the S&P 500 added 0.92 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.41 per cent, news agency Reuters reported.

Back home, thirteen of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Realty index's over 2 per cent gain. Nifty Metal, PSU Bank, Private Bank, Bank, Financial Services and Bank indices also rose between 0.5-1.3 per cent.

On the other hand, select pharma and healthcare shares were facing selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.54 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 1 per cent.

Among the individual shares, Vodafone Idea bounced back and rallied over 7 per cent to Rs 12.65 a day after its board decided to convert AGR related debt into equity.

Delta Corp advanced 3 per cent to Rs 291 after its profit jumped manifold to Rs 70 crore from Rs 1 crore during the same quarter last year.

Hindalco was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.43 per cent to Rs 498. UltraTech Cement, ONGC, Reliance Industries, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, Indian Oil, Tata Steel and HDFC also rose between 1-1.5 per cent.

On the flipside, Cipla, TCS, Titan, Dr Reddy's Labs, UPL, Wipro, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Consumer Products, Divi's Labs, Hindustan Unilever and ITC were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,228 shares were advancing while 758 were declining on the BSE.