Indian benchmark indices climbed on Wednesday, with the Sensex up 657.85 points, or 0.85 per cent, at 77,423.77, and the Nifty 50 higher by 191.3 points at 24,176.65.
The advance was led by IT stocks, with Infosys gaining 3.89 per cent, while L&T, TCS, Hindustan Unilever and Tech Mahindra also rose.
Sector gauges showed the Nifty IT index up as much as 2.51 per cent and the Nifty FMCG index up 1.52 per cent, even as several Asian markets traded weaker.
Power Grid was the worst performer, down 0.67 per cent, while InterGlobe Aviation, Asian Paints, Maruti and Titan also declined.
Advancing shares outnumbered decliners on the BSE by a wide margin, with 1,837 gainers against 550 losers and 103 unchanged.
The move higher came alongside a rebound in crude oil prices after a roughly 14 per cent fall over three sessions tied to escalating US-Iran tensions.
Institutional buying added support, with foreign institutional investors purchasing ₹755.33 crore and domestic institutional investors buying ₹1,664.16 crore worth of shares on July 28.
Investors were keeping a close watch on the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision due later in the day, even as domestic markets pushed higher.
The gains came after Tuesday’s flat close, when the Sensex ended at 76,765.92 and the Nifty at 23,985.35 amid a fragile US-Iran pause.
India’s volatility gauge, the India VIX, had slipped to 12.56 on July 28, down 0.79 per cent, with a firmer rupee and easing geopolitical tensions contributing to the calmer backdrop.
Market watchers said the rebound in crude oil, after three straight sessions of sharp declines, had eased some of the concerns that had weighed on Indian equities earlier in the week amid the ongoing US-Iran tensions.
Sustained buying by domestic institutional investors in recent sessions has also been credited with cushioning Indian markets against bouts of volatility driven by global cues.
(Image: “BSE building at Dalal Street” by BSEINDIA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
