New Delhi, 01 April (H.S.):
Indian equity benchmarks delivered a sharp, across‑the‑board rally on Wednesday, shrugging off two days of heavy selling as hopes of an early de‑escalation in the West Asia conflict lifted sentiment. The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty ended the session up by more than 1.5 per cent each, with broad‑based buying pushing the combined market capitalisation of listed companies higher by nearly ₹9.8 lakh crore in a single trading day.
The Sensex, which had been under pressure for the past two sessions, opened at 73,762.43, up 1,814.88 points, and briefly touched an intraday high of 73,964.58 as aggressive buying rushed in across most sectors. The index, however, pared some gains in the afternoon when profit‑taking gathered momentum, slipping as much as 992.90 points from its peak to trade around 72,971.68 before staging a late‑session recovery.
By the close, the Sensex had added 1,186.77 points, or about 1.65 per cent, to settle at 73,134.32.
Similarly, the Nifty 50 opened at 22,899, gaining 567.60 points, and quickly climbed to an intraday peak of 22,941.30 before selling pressure emerged later in the day. The index trimmed some of its gains, once dropping 322.70 points from the high to touch 22,618.60, but firmed up in the final hour to end up 348 points, or roughly 1.56 per cent, at 22,679.40.
The rally was broad‑based, with most sectoral indices trading in the green despite the intraday volatility triggered by bouts of profit‑booking. The defence sector led the charge, with the Nifty India Defence index closing up over 5 per cent, supported by fresh optimism around defence spending and geopolitical developments in the West Asia region. Media, PSU banks, capital goods, public sector enterprises, IT, automobiles, consumer durables, FMCG, metals, oil & gas and the broader tech index also ended in positive territory, aided by renewed buying interest.
Mid and small‑cap stocks underperformed large caps during the earlier decline but caught up with the upmove on Wednesday. The Nifty Midcap index finished 2.20 per cent higher, while the small‑cap index surged 3.40 per cent, reflecting aggressive risk‑taking by investors after the recent correction.
On the downside, the healthcare space remained the weakest link. The BSE Healthcare index slipped 0.23 per cent as pharmaceutical stocks saw bouts of selling, with the sector’s underperformance partly attributed to renewed profit‑taking and valuation‑related concerns.
The day’s strong advance widened investors’ wealth significantly. With the rally, the combined market capitalisation of companies listed on the BSE climbed to about ₹422.23 lakh crore on an unaudited basis, up from ₹412.41 lakh crore the previous trading day. This implies that investors added roughly ₹9.82 lakh crore in paper wealth during a single session.
Trading activity remained robust: on the BSE, 4,437 stocks saw active trading, of which 3,828 advanced, 508 declined and 101 ended flat. At the NSE, 3,006 scrips were traded, with 2,778 gaining and 228 falling. Among the Sensex 30, 25 closed higher while 5 slipped, and in the Nifty 50, 39 gained while 11 weakened.
Top Gainers and Losers
From the marquee list, standout gainers included Trent (up about 7 per cent), InterGlobe Aviation (+6.02 per cent), Adani Ports (+5.55 per cent), Adani Enterprises (+4.76 per cent) and Bharat Electronics (+4.51 per cent), all of which contributed materially to the broader bullish bias.
On the negative side, major losers were Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (down 3.61 per cent), HDFC Life (-2.99 per cent), Cipla (-2.31 per cent), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (-1.63 per cent) and NTPC (-1.62 per cent), mainly dragged by profit‑taking and sector‑specific concerns.
Overall, the rally reflected a swift reversal of pessimism, with investors betting that the worst of the geopolitical shock from the West Asia conflict may already be behind them.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
