Sensex rises over 200 points amid gains in banking, IT stocks

Tracking a modest reversal on Wall Street, benchmark equity indices opened higher on Wednesday, led by gains in banking, financial and IT stocks.

BSE Sensex was trading 230 points or 0.37% higher at 61,931. Nifty50 was at 18,456, up 71 points or 0.39% at around 9.18 am.

However, analysts say the rising Covid cases in the US, Korea, Brazil, and China is an area of concern.

“The situation is dire in China. This might impact market sentiments. Moreover, there are no near-term triggers to take the market higher. The next round of triggers will come only in January, starting with the Infosys and HCL Tech results on 12th Jan,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said.

Among Sensex stocks, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Wipro and Tata Motors were the top gainers, rising about 1-2%. Bajaj Finserv, Nestle, Sun Pharma and Infosys also opened with gains. However, only L&T and Power Grid opened with cuts.

Sectorally, Nifty PSU Bank surged 1.91%, Nifty Realty 1.41% and Nifty IT 0.93%. Nifty Pharma, Nifty Metal and Nifty Auto indices also opened higher. Whereas, in the broader market, Nifty Midcap50 increased 0.77% and Nifty Smallcap50 rose 0.85%.

US stocks finished modestly higher on Tuesday, bouncing after four-session of declines. Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 0.28% and S&P 500 rose 0.10%, while Nasdaq Composite ended flat.

Asian peers are trading with cuts with Japanese markets in negative terrain after the Bank of Japan adjusted their yield curve. In early trade in Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.65%, South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.07% and China’s Shanghai Composite fell 0.10%.

At 9.42 am, Brent crude February futures and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading flat at $79.98 and $76.23 a barrel, respectively.

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