Sensex Surges 900 Points, Nifty Reclaims 7,900 Amid Wild Swings Due To Volatility

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes were witnessing wild swings amid heightened volatility a day after the benchmarks witnessed their worst day in the history. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening wherein the Sensex surged as much as 1,482 points and the Nifty 50 index surpassed its important symbolical level of 8,000. However, selling pressure in financials, infrastructure and realty stocks briefly wiped out entire intraday gains. But, buying interest in heavyweights like Infosys, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC, TCS and Kotak Mahindra Bank helped Sensex and Nifty surge in noon deals.

The benchmarks are witnessing wild swings as the India VIX index - the gauge of expected volatility climbed 11 per cent, analysts said. Investors are also cautious tracking the spread of coronavirus outbreak amid lockdown in various cities, analysts added.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address the media in afternoon. Reports suggest that the Finance Minister is likely to announce a relief package to tackle the slowdown in economy amid outbreak of Covid-19.

As of 12:48 pm, the Sensex traded 835 points or 3.2 per cent higher at 26,816 and the NSE Nifty 50 index climbed 3.5 per cent or 233 points to 7,843.

Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Pharma index's over 5 per cent gain. FMCG, IT and Auto sector gauges also surged between 3-4 per cent each.

On the other hand, Nifty Realty index was top loser, down 3.4 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a mixed note as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1.7 per cent while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index dropped 1.7 per cent.

Britannia Industries was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 13 per cent to Rs 2,420. Adani Ports, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, Cipla, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors and Eicher Motors also rose between 6-12 per cent.

On the flipside, Bharti Infratel, ITC, Bajaj Finserv, Bharat Petroleum, Grasim Industries, Hindalco, Axis Bank and Indian Oil were among the notable laggards.

The overall market breadth was marginally negative as 761 shares were trading higher while 959 were among the laggards on the NSE.