Market Wrap, March 20: Indices extend gains to fourth day; NIFTY50 ends above 23,100, SENSEX zooms 900 points, IT stocks surge

The Indian stock market on Thursday, March 20, continued to rise for the fourth consecutive session as investors cheered the US Federal Reserve decision. The rally in the IT stocks also added to the optimism.

During the intraday period, for the first time since February 13, NIFTY50 touched 23,200 levels. Both the equity benchmark indices have gained over 3.5% in the last four trading sessions.

At close, the S&P BSE SENSEX settled at 76,348.06, soaring 899.01 points, or 1.19%, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index closed 283.05 points, or 1.24%, higher at the 23,190.65 level.

According to NSE’s data, the market sentiment remained in favour of positives as 1,759 scrips advanced out of 2,981 stocks traded on Thursday.

The broader market also ended the session in green, with both midcap and smallcap stocks rising over 0.60%. All the sectoral indices closed positive on Thursday.

Bharti Airtel, Titan, Eicher Motors, Bajaj-Auto, and Britannia were the most contributing stocks, soaring as much as 4.08%.

Meanwhile, after taking a buyer’s position for a day, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers on Wednesday and sold equities worth ₹1,096.50 crore on a net basis, according to exchange data.

Globally, Asian markets were trading lower on Thursday as Chinese equities declined sharply just after the open as their central bank held their LPR (lending prime rate) steady at record low levels, last changed in October 2024.

The Shanghai Composite Index traded 0.51% lower at 3,408.95, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 2.28% at 24,219.95. Elsewhere Japan markets were closed for a holiday on Wednesday, but Nikkei futures rose 0.2%. Australian shares jumped 1%. South Korea’s Kospi index inched higher by 0.32% to the 2,637.10 level.

However, in the US, responding to the Federal Reserve’s unchanged policy stance and indicating two rate cuts further in 2025, the indices rallied over 1% across the board.

The Dow Jones jumped 384 points, the S&P 500 jumped 1.08%, and NASDAQ jumped 1.3%, led by a rally in tech stocks.

Shares of big-tech companies like Nvidia, Broadcom, and Alphabet rallied in the range of 2% to 3.4% on Wednesday. Shares of Tesla jumped 4.7% after securing $1 billion in funding.

As many as 2,981 stocks traded on the NSE on Thursday. Out of this, 1,759 advanced, and 1,143 stocks declined, while 79 scripts remained unchanged.

A total of 35 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 59 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 184 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 59 touched their lower circuit bands on Thursday.

At the end of the session, the volatility index India VIX stood at 12.60 levels, tanking 5.22%.

The broader market continued with its rally as the Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.64% to settle at the 51,144.40 level, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 advanced by 0.70% to the 15,858.05 level.

All the sectors on Thursday settled in green, with Nifty Oil and Gas (1.59%), Nifty Midsmall Healthcare (1.57%), Nifty Auto (1.42%), Nifty FMCG (1.29%) and Nifty IT (1.25%) being the top gainers.

As many as 44 stocks on the NIFTY50 index traded in the green, while only 4 ended in the negative territory and 2 scrips remained unchanged on Thursday. The biggest contributing stocks on the index were Bharti Airtel, Titan, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto and Britannia, rising as much as 4.08%.

On the flip side, the top losers were IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Trent and Shriram Finance, tumbling as much as 1.11% on the 50-share index.

“The company has deployed close to 2500 sites in the two years, taking the total site count to over 11,000 in the state, the most by any telecom operator,” Bharti Airtel said in a statement.

“…we wish to inform you that the company has signed an MoU with PWD (Roads & Bridges), Nagaland, for the supply of 08 sets of double-lane modular steel bridges in the state of Nagaland,” Garden Reach Shipbuilders said in a statement to the stock exchanges on Thursday.