Nifty 50 and the Sensex ended the holiday-truncated week on a high note with investors rejoicing easing fears of a US recession after a wave of US data this week going from inflation to jobless claims and retail sales.
At close, the Sensex was up 1,330.96 points or 1.68% at 80,436.84, and the Nifty was up 397.40 points or 1.65% at 24,541.20.
Among the sectors, all ended with strong gains, with information technology, automobiles, banks, metals and realty leading from the front, surging 1.5-3%.
Notably, buying was robust in the broader market as well, with the BSE Smallcap and BSE Midcap indices rising nearly 2% each.
On BSE, several stocks touched 52-week including Colgate, EPL, Eris Life, Firstsource Solutions, Fortis Health, Glenmark, Info Edge, Inox Wind, JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Kaynes Tech, and LT Foods among others.
During the trading day, Nifty reached a high of 24,563.9 and a low of 24,204.5. The Sensex traded within the range of 80,518.21 and 79,306.69.
The Midcap index outperformed the Nifty 50, with the Nifty Midcap 50 closing up by 2.03%. Small-cap stocks also outperformed the Nifty 50, as the Nifty Small Cap 100 ended at 18,087.5, up by 349.35 points or 1.93%.
On Nifty50, the top gainers were Wipro (4.26%), Tech Mahindra (4.00%), Grasim Industries (3.50%), Mahindra & Mahindra (3.47%), and Tata Motors (3.39%).
The top losers were Divis Laboratories (0.60%), SBI Life Insurance Company (0.19%), and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (0.11%).
The Bank Nifty ended at 49,727.3, with an intraday high of 50,603.4 and a low of 49,806.05.
Morgan Stanley has maintained its “Overweight” rating on Zomato, with a target price of Rs 278 per share, implying a nearly 8 percent upside from the last closing price.
Markets staged a robust recovery driven by positive global cues. After opening with a gap-up, the Nifty initially lost all its gains in the early hours but rebounded due to strong buying interest in select heavyweight stocks.
Rasing worries of the US slipping into a recession were also combined with hopes of the Fed delivering a rate cut in its upcoming September meeting, largely backed on signs of cooling inflation.
All these factors, combined with upbeat cues from global markets, triggered a buying rally across domestic stocks.