NIFTY50 reclaims 24,000, SENSEX surges over 550 points led by gains in ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Thursday, July 9, despite renewed tensions between United States and Iran sending crude oil prices higher for second straight session.

The SENSEX rose as much as 592 points and NIFTY50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 24,050 led by gains in ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Eternal, Reliance Industries, Sn Pharma and Larsen & Toubro.

As of 9:36 am, the SENSEX was up 507 points at 77,010 and NIFTY50 index advanced 162 points to 24,044.

Asian markets were trading on a mixed note as sentiment took a knock following fresh strikes by US on Iran that sent crude oil prices northwards igniting fear of inflations, analysts said.

Japan's Nikkei rose 1.85% and South Korea's KOSPI index advanced 0.35% while China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.5% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 1%.

Back home, buying was visible across board as all the 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE), barring the measure of IT stocks, were trading higher led by the NIFTY Consumer Durables index's 2.15% gain. NIFTY Realty, Pharma, Healthcare, Private Bank, PSU Bank, Media, FMCG, Bank and Financial Services indices also rose between 0.65% and 1.9%.

Broader markets were also witnessing strong buying interest as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 1.23% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 1.65%.

Eternal was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 3.8% to ₹298. Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Jio Financial Services, Nestle India, Tata Consumer Products, Grasim, Max Healthcare and Coal India also rose between 1.4% and 2.9%.

On the flip side, Infosys, Hindalco, Dr Reddy's Labs, TCS, HCL Tech, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, NTPC and Tata Steel were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,472 shares were advancing while 397 were declining on the NSE.