Market Wrap, April 15: SENSEX jumps 1,263 pts, NIFTY50 ends at 24,231 on global cues; SMIDs outperform, IndiGo top gainer

Tracking its Asian peers, the Indian equity benchmark indices closed in green on Wednesday, April 15, led by a strong rally in consumer durables, IT and realty stocks.

Investors turned confident as talks to end the Iran war could resume over the next two days, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, after the collapse of weekend negotiations prompted Washington to impose a blockade on Iranian ports.

The S&P BSE SENSEX had touched an intraday high of 78,270.42 on Wednesday before closing at the 78,111.24 level, surging 1,263.67 points, or 1.64%.

The 50-share index NIFTY50 closed at the 24,231.30 level, soaring 388.65 points, or 1.63%. During the intraday period, the index had hit an intraday high of the 24,280.90 level.

The broader market, however, outperformed the main indices as both midcap and smallcap gauges settled over 2% higher.

According to exchange data, on Monday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹1,983.18 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹2,432.30 crore on a net basis.

Globally, markets in Asia ended higher on Wednesday as crude oil prices dropped below $100 per barrel after reports suggested that the United States and Iran could resume talks to end the war.

Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.59%, China's Shanghai Composite gained marginally by 0.01%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.48% and South Korea's KOSPI surged 2.03%.

On Wall Street, the US stocks ended near record highs on Tuesday on hopes that the United States and Iran may try again with talks to end their war and avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy, the news agency AP reported.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.66%, the S&P 500 index gained 1.18% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 1.96%.

Here are the key developments of Wednesday's session that you need to know

As many as 3,361 stocks traded on the NSE on Wednesday. Out of these, 2,839 advanced and 438 stocks declined, while 84 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of advances.

A total of 105 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while only 7 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 185 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 30 touched their lower circuit bands on Wednesday.

The market capitalisation of NSE-listed firms stood at ₹456.44 lakh crore at the close of the session, reflecting a gain of ₹8.88 lakh crore in investor wealth.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 18.67 levels, tanking 8.93%.

The broader market outperformed the main equity benchmark indices, with the Nifty Midcap 100 rising 2.2% to close at 58,777.75, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 surged 2.35% to end at the 17,156.40 level.

All the sectors settled in green at the end of the session. Nifty Consumer Durables took the lead, climbing 2.91%, followed by Nifty IT (2.84%), Nifty Realty (2.56%), Nifty Media (2.15%) and Nifty Metal (1.77%).

On the NIFTY50 index, 45 stocks closed higher, and only 5 declined by the end of the session.

IndiGo operator InterGlobe Aviation was the most contributing stock, rallying 4.35% on Wednesday. Power Grid (4.21%), Eternal (4.14%), Max Healthcare (4.06%) and Wipro (3.46%) were the other top gainers on Wednesday.

On the contrary, Dr Reddy's Laboratories (-1.23%), Bharti Airtel (-0.72%), ICICI Bank (-0.3%), Axis Bank (-0.16%), and ONGC (-0.02%) were the only laggards on the 50-share index.