After a volatile intra-day trading, the benchmark indices managed to eke out gains on Wednesday, largely driven by a rally in public sector banks and realty shares.
The BSE Sensex rose 400 points in early trade, surpassing the 81,000-mark (intra-day high of 81,245.39) for the first time in 29 sessions. However, it gave up all gains, falling over 600 points from the day’s high to a low of 80,630.53 ― down 215 points compared to the previous close ― before settling at 80,956.33, up 110.58 points or 0.14%. The NSE Nifty 50 index ended the day at 24,467.45, up 10.3 points or 0.04%.
The benchmark equity indices closed in the positive territory for the fourth consecutive session on Wednesday. In the earlier three sessions, the Sensex and Nifty gained 2.25% each.
The broader market outperformed on Wednesday, with the BSE midcap and smallcap indices returning gains of 0.83% and 0.68%, respectively. The smallcap index rallied for the ninth straight session, achieving an 8.58% gain over this period―its longest stretch of advances since mid-June.
PSB stocks rallied up to 13% on hopes of an interest rate cut by the RBI later this week. As a result, the Nifty PSU bank index emerged as the top gainer with a 2.25% increase. The Nifty realty index followed closely with a 2.14% gain, marking its third consecutive day of advances.
“Anticipation of a possible cash reserve ratio reduction energised banking stocks on Wednesday, pushing the Bank Nifty over 1% higher, with the PSU banking index outperforming its private-sector counterpart as investors turned optimistic ahead of the RBI’s monetary policy meeting,” said Vikram Kasat, head of advisory at PL Capital – Prabhudas Lilladher.
The Nifty private bank index rose 0.86%. HDFC Bank, the largest private-sector player, was the top Sensex gainer. It hit a new lifetime high of ₹1,865 intra-day and ended the day at ₹1,860.05, up 1.82%. NTPC, TCS, and the Bajaj Finance twins were other top gainers from the index, while Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, and Adani Ports were among top laggards, falling up to 2.20%.