Market Wrap, August 13: SENSEX rises 304 points, NIFTY50 reclaims 24,600 amid rally in pharma, auto stocks; Apollo Hospitals zooms 8%

The Indian equity benchmark indices settled higher on Wednesday, August 13, tracking global cues and a rally in the pharma, auto and metal sectors. Investor confidence was also boosted following the July retail inflation data.

Falling food prices and a favourable base effect reduced India’s retail inflation to 1.55% in July, its lowest since June 2017, government data showed on Tuesday. This marks the ninth straight month that inflation has fallen.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹3,398.80 crore on a net basis, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased ₹3,507.93 crore worth of equities.

Globally, the Asian stocks closed with significant gains on Wednesday amid a broad-based buying. Japan’s main indices topped the 43,000 mark for the first time.

Japan's Nikkei soared 1.29% to end at the 43,275 level, while South Korea's KOSPI, Hong Kong's Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite jumped 1.07%, 2.29% and 0.48%.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq settled at record closing highs on Tuesday, after US July inflation rose broadly in line with expectations, bolstering bets on a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in September.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 483.52 points, or 1.10%, to end at 44,458.61; the S&P 500 surged 72.31 points, or 1.13%, to close at 6,445.76; and the Nasdaq Composite gained 296.50 points, or 1.39%, to settle at 21,681.90.

As many as 3,061 stocks traded on the NSE on Wednesday. Out of this, only 1,685 advanced and 1,287 stocks declined, while 89 scrips remained unchanged.

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

A total of 51 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 59 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 99 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 59 touched their lower circuit bands on Wednesday.

NSE-listed firms' market capitalisation stood at ₹442.31 lakh crore at the end of the session.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 12.14 levels, losing 0.75%.

The Nifty Smallcap 100 index gained 0.66% to end at 17,613.95 levels, while the Nifty Midcap 100 index closed 0.63% higher at 56,681.50 levels.

Except for Nifty PSU Bank (-0.14%), Nifty Oil and Gas (-0.05%) and Nifty FMCG (-0.04%), all the other sectors ended with gains on Wednesday.

Nifty Pharma took the lead among gainers, rallying 1.73%, followed by Nifty Metal (1.26%), Nifty Auto (1.12%), Nifty Media (0.88%) and Nifty Realty (0.24%).

Apollo Hospitals was the most contributing stock, zooming 8.2% on the back of strong June quarter earnings. This was followed by Hindalco Industries gaining 5.09% post its Q1.

Dr Reddy’s, Cipla and Hero MotoCorp were the other top contributors, rising 2.71%, 2.52% and 2.35%, respectively.

On the contrary, IndusInd Bank (-1.26%), Adani Ports (-0.72%), ITC (-0.52%), Titan (-0.43%) and Tech Mahindra (-0.35%) were the biggest losing stocks on the 50-share index.