Sensex recovers over 600 points in 2 days as equities shun geopolitical worries; FMCG, auto stocks shine

Indian stock market closed higher on Wednesday following the strong opening as geopolitical tensions amid the United States and North Korea went off the track. The benchmark Sensex most of the losses after the last week’s slump of over 1000 points while Nifty 50 breached the 9,900 mark in the intraday trade, closed 180 points higher. The Indian equity markets witnessed a choppy trade in the last week mainly due to the SEBI’s shell order, lower-than-expected first quarter earnings and cross-border worries triggered between the United States and North Korea. BSE Sensex has gained over 600 points in just two trading sessions to 31,770.89 points from the Friday’s close of 31,128.02 points. 

The shares of heavyweights ITC, HDFC bank, HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India and Sun Pharma remain the major uplifters which contributed most in the upsurge of benchmark indices. Collectively these stocks added over 250 points to the Sensex gains.

Stocks of Cipla (up 3.54%), Tata Motors (up 3.57%), Hindustan Unilever (up 3.27%), ITC (up 3.01%) and Sun Pharma (up 2.69%) were the lead gainers on BSE Sensex.

All the sectoral indices ended higher with gains up to 2.51% which includes, Nifty Bank (up 1.34%), Nifty FMCG (up 2.51%), Nifty IT (up 0.68%), Nifty Auto (up 1.68%), Nifty Media (up 0.37%), Nifty Metal (up 1.72%), Nifty Pharma (up 1.16%), Nifty Realty (up 0.85%), Nifty Fin Service (up 1.38%), Nifty Pvt Bank (up 1.22%) and Nifty PSU Bank (up 2.1%).

The caution prevailed as a faster-than-expected rise in consumer price inflation in July reduced the chances of another interest rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India, which cut its main policy rate early this month by 25 basis points to 6%, the lowest since November 2010.

The 30-share barometer ended up 321 points at 31,770.89 points and the broader Nifty 50 settled 103 points higher at 9,897 points. Indian stock markets were closed on Tuesday on the account of Independence Day.

Consumer stocks gained the most as the Nifty FMCG rose as much as 2.51% in its biggest intraday percentage gain in over a month. recovering from recent losses sparked by worries about the impact from India’s new goods and services tax. Nifty Auto gained 1.68%, with TVS Motor Company (up 5.36%) being the top percentage gainer.