Sensex Rises Over 200 Points, Nifty Moves Above 11,750

Domestic stock markets rose on Wednesday shrugging off volatility early in the session, a day ahead of counting of votes in the general election, amid choppy trade in Asian peers. The S&P BSE Sensex rose as much as 226.97 points to 39,196.77 in morning, and the NSE Nifty moved to 11,760.65, up 51.55  points from the previous close. The benchmark indexes advanced after swinging between gains and losses in the first few minutes of trade. 

At 11:08 am, the Sensex traded with a gain of 102.65 points - or 0.26 per cent - at 39,072.45, while the Nifty was up 11.00 points - or 0.09 per cent - at 11,720.10. 

Top gainers on the 50-scrip index at the time were Bharat Petroleum, Sun Pharma, UPL, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, trading between 1.34 per cent and 2.50 per cent higher.

Market breadth was negative, with 793 advancers against 841 decliners on the National Stock Exchange. On the BSE, 955 stocks traded higher while 995 moved lower. 

HDFC, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank contributed the most to the advances on Sensex.

On the other hand, top laggards on the Nifty were IndusInd Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Tech Mahindra, Yes Bank and Adani Ports, trading with losses of between 1.92 per cent and 3.06 per cent.

Analysts predict that the markets will quickly discount the election results.

"Going forward in the medium term... we expect the markets to consolidate post the election outcome as focus would shift back to fundamentals and global cues which have been volatile due to re-escalation of US-China trade tensions," news agency Reuters quoted Jayant Manglik, president - retail distribution at Religare Broking, as saying in a report.

Equities in other Asian markets were on shaky ground amid worries about trade frictions between the world's two largest economies, the US and China. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan moved in and out of the red and last stood little changed. Japan's Nikkei edged up 0.3 per cent.

The Chinese markets, which have endured a volatile few months, started off on a cautious note. The Shanghai Composite Index was last down 0.1 per cent. Australian stocks gave up 0.1 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.2 per cent.

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes had snapped a three-day winning streak the previous day. The Sensex and Nifty ended 0.97 per cent and 1 per cent lower respectively on Tuesday.

(With inputs from Reuters)