Sensex Rises 200 Points, Nifty At 10,760; Reliance Industries Jumps Over 2%

A day after posting considerable losses, S&P BSE Sensex opened higher on Wednesday at 35,329.60 points. At the same time, NSE's benchmark index Nifty50 edged up to trade at 10,730 level in the opening trade. At 12.37 pm, the 30-share benchmark index, Sensex, traded 212 points, or 0.60 percent, higher at 35,500 points. At the same time, NSE's 50-share index Nifty50 surged 53 points, or 0.50 per cent, higher at 10,764. Reliance Industries (RIL) shares jumped 2 per cent to trade at Rs 1,015 on BSE, while the share price traded at Rs 1,000 on NSE in the afternoon trade.  

The S&P BSE Sensex stocks that posted maximum gains in the early trade include Axis Bank (2 per cent), Vedanta (1.92 per cent) and Mahindra & Mahindra (1.2 per cent). The Sensex laggards include ITC (0.68 per cent), ONGC (0.7 per cent) and Wipro (0.88 per cent). Among the Nifty 50 stocks, the major gainers in the morning trade are Cipla (2.5 per cent), Axis Bank (1.8 per cent) and Vedanta (0.8 per cent). The Nifty laggards are ONGC (0.76 per cent), IOC (0.95 per cent) and UPL (1.45 per cent).

"Markets are largely driven by global factors due to lesser domestic triggers," said Anita Gandhi, whole-time director at Arihant Capital Markets. "The Reserve Bank of India's OMO (open market operation) purchase should help improve liquidity in the markets and boost sentiment."

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Tuesday it would buy five government bonds worth up to Rs 10,000 crore under its open market purchase on Thursday.

Financials led the gains on the indexes, with HDFC Bank Ltd and Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd on track to rise for a second straight session. The Nifty finance index was up 0.8 percent, on track to stem five days of losses.

Reliance Industries, oil-to-telecom conglomerate, and Vedanta, the local unit of diversified mining group Vedanta Resources Plc, were the top percentage gainers on both the indices, rising more than 2 percent each.

Investors were also waiting for the minutes of RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which is due after market hours. The RBI raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point at its last meeting, citing rising inflation risks.

On Tuesday, Sensex had closed 262 points down, while Nifty ended the day at 10,710 points.

The gauge had lost 335.40 points in the previous two sessions, tracking a sell-off across global markets after the US and China reignited their trade dispute. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 653.686 crore while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold equities to the tune of Rs 1,324.92 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

"The market is recognizing India macro's growing stability, as evidenced by the 37 percent fall in the country's beta vs. EM since December 2014 to a 13-year low. The implications include the case for a positive surprise in equity returns for India (as expectations are now low, going by beta's level) with likely outperformance for India vs. EM in a low-return world. In addition, India's falling relative short rates, likely rising relative growth rates and a fall in FPI positioning to 2011 levels add to the outperformance case, in our view," said Morgan Stanley in a research report..

The same report indicates the yield curve to signify the growth "The bond market is probably indicating that growth is back. The yield curve is at post-2010 highs and correlates positively with stocks."

(With Reuters and PTI inputs)