Sensex Recovers Over 500 Points From Day's Low; SBI Rises Ahead Of Earnings

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a strong recovery in noon deals on the back of rebound in banking and financial services shares. The Sensex rose as much as 548 points from the day's lowest level to hit an intraday high of 50,474.25 and Nifty 50 index moved above its important psychological level of 14,850. The benchmarks had opened lower on the back of weak trend in other Asian markets. Kotak Mahindra Bank, ITC, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, ONGC and Larsen & Toubro were among the top movers in the Sensex, they collectively added over 150 points towards gain in the Sensex.

As of 12:41 pm, the Sensex was up 114 points at 50,370 and Nifty 50 index advanced 57 points to 14,865.

Buying was visible across the board as all the 11 sector gauges, barring the index of IT shares, were trading higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's over 3.55 per cent gain. Metal, media, auto, banking, FMCG and realty indexes also rose between 0.7-2 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1.1 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 1.5 per cent.

Among the individual shares, Apollo Tyres surged as much as 12.42 per cent to hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 255.55 on the BSE a day after it reported December quarter earnings. Apollo Tyres net profit during the October-December period more than doubled to Rs 444 crore as against profit of Rs 174 crore during the same quarter last year. On a sequential basis, Apollo Tyres swung to profit as it reported net loss of Rs 246 crore in September quarter.

State Bank of India rose nearly 1 per cent to Rs 339 ahead of earnings.