Market Wrap, Oct 15: NIFTY50 ends at 25,323, SENSEX rises 575 points, Nifty Midcap 100 shines; NSE-listed firms add ₹4 lakh crore

The Indian stock market snapped a two-day losing streak and ended higher on Wednesday, October 15, tracking strong gains in Asian markets and a rally in realty and PSU bank stocks. Investor sentiment was further boosted after the IMF raised its growth forecast for India.

Further, India's exports also grew by 6.74% to $36.38 billion in September despite global headwinds. Its imports jumped 16.6% to $68.53 billion, while the country's trade deficit stood at $32.1 billion during the month.

According to exchange data, on Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equities worth ₹1,508.53 crore on a net basis, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased ₹3,661.13 crore worth of equities.

Globally, most of the Asian markets closed higher as expectations of a US Federal rate cut lifted sentiment and surpassed tensions over US-China trade tensions.

Japan's Nikkei rose 1.77%, Singapore's Straits Times advanced 0.32%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.80%, and South Korea's KOSPI jumped 2.61%. The Shanghai Composite also ended up by 1.20%.

On Wall Street, US stocks ended lower following a volatile session as trade tensions continued to simmer between Washington and Beijing.

The S&P 500 closed 0.2% lower after shifting between a steep morning loss and a recovery in the afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.8% after making similar swings. 

As many as 3,189 stocks traded on the NSE on Wednesday. Out of this, 1,979 advanced and 1,125 stocks declined, while 8,593 scrips remained unchanged.

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

A total of 67 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 95 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 89 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 65 touched their lower circuit bands on Wednesday.

The market capitalisation of NSE-listed firms stood at ₹461.26 lakh crore at the close of the session, adding ₹4 lakh crore from the previous day.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 10.53 levels, declining 5.6%.

The Nifty Midcap 100 outperformed the main equity benchmark indices, rising 1.11% to 58,970, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 gained 0.82% to close at 18,088.05.

All sectors closed in the green except Nifty Media, which fell 0.52%. Leading the gains, Nifty Realty surged 3.04%, followed by Nifty PSU Bank (1.67%), Nifty Metal (1%), Nifty FMCG (0.99%), and Nifty Consumer Durables (0.84%).

Bajaj Finance was the most contributing stock, soaring 4.07%, followed by Nestle India (3.98%), Bajaj Finserv (3.14%), Trent (2.64%) and Asian Paints (2.54%).

On the flip side, Infosys (-1.04%), Bajaj Auto (-0.96%), Tata Motors (-0.90%), Tech Mahindra (-0.89%) and Tata Consumer Products (-0.60%) were the biggest laggards on the 50-share index.