The stock market showed a smart recovery on Wednesday to close higher as the Sensex recovered 1,023 points from the day’s low to close 277.98 points, or 0.39%, higher at 71,833.17.
Nifty slumped to 21,530.20 but rebounded to end the day 97 points, or 0.44%, higher at 21,840.
The recovery was led by gains in SBI and other PSU banks in a highly volatile session.
The Nifty Bank index, too, gained over 1,000 points from the day’s low to end 0.9% higher at 45,908.30.
Nifty Oil & Gas jumped 3.10%, Nifty Media rose 2.51% while the Auto index rose 1.46%.
On the flip side, Nifty IT fell 1.12%, Nifty Healthcare and Pharma indices fell about a per cent each.
On the sectoral front, PSU bank and oil & gas indices rose 3% each, while auto, bank, FMCG, capital goods, metal, power and realty were up 1.2% each. Information technology and pharma indices were down a percent each.
BPCL, SBI, Coal India, ONGC and Axis Bank were among the top gainers on the Nifty, while losers were Tech Mahindra, Cipla, Sun Pharma, TCS and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.
BSE Midcap index jumped 1.39% while the Smallcap index rose 1.24%.
Among individual stocks, a volume spike of more than 200% was seen in Hindustan Copper, Gujarat Gas and Glenmark Pharma.
A long build-up was seen in HPCL, BPCL and IOC, while a short build-up was seen in Glenmark Pharma, Info Edge and L&T Technology Services.
In a single session, the overall market capitalisation of the firms listed on the BSE rose to nearly Rs 385 lakh crore from nearly Rs 380.8 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors richer by about Rs 4.2 lakh crore in a single session.
As many as 35 stocks ended higher in the Nifty 50 index. Shares of BPCL, up 7.30%, SBI up 4.14% and ONGC up 3.72% ended as the top gainers in the index.
Shares of Tech Mahindra, down 2.81%, Cipla, down 2.35% and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, down 1.30% ended as the top losers in the index.
Major European markets were in the green when the Sensex closed. Among Asian peers, the Nikkei and KOSPI ended lower attributed to the release of US inflation data yesterday, which came above expectations, leading to speculation that the Federal Reserve might not reduce interest rates as significantly or rapidly as previously anticipated this year.