SENSEX, NIFTY50 gain for third straight session led by buying in IT shares

The Indian equity benchmarks ended higher for a third straight session on Wednesday, March 18, powered by buying interest in information technology (IT) shares. The SENSEX rose as much as 929 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 23,862 led by gains in heavyweights like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Axis Bank and Larsen & Toubro.

The SENSEX ended 633 points higher at 76,704 and NIFTY50 index advanced 197 points to close at 23,778.

Indian equity benchmarks opened higher taking cues from positive sentiment in other Asian markets as crude oil prices declined slightly in global markets. Japan's Nikkei rose 23.15%, South Korea's KOSPI advanced 5%, Thailand's SET Index gained 0.5% while China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.32%.

Brent crude oil futures declined 0.8% to $102.59 per barrel amid ongoing geopolitical tensions in West Asia.

Back home, buying was visible across board as 13 of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended higher led by the NIFTY IT index's nearly 3% gain. IT stocks came under buying interest on account of value buying after a report by CLSA said that it found no evidence of increased deflation in renewal contracts due to the latest AI tools from Anthropic and OpenAI since their launch.

"TCS sees AI as a net tailwind for the industry with focus on building applications through AI tools becoming an opportunity for TCS. TCS is in advanced discussions with Anthropic as well around building a partnership like the one they did with OpenAI," CLSA said.

NIFTY Bank, Financial Services, Auto, Private Bank, Consumer Durables, Realty and Oil & Gas indices also rose between 0.6% and 2.75%.

On the flip side, select FMCG and metal shares faced a mild selling pressure.

Broader markets outperformed their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 index advanced 2% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index surged 1.67%.

Among the individual shares, Urban Company shares surged 10% to close at ₹121 after after SBI Mutual Fund bought additional shares in the company in bulk deals on Tuesday.

Data showed that the fund house on Tuesday bought 3,50,63,090 shares of Urban Company at an average price of ₹109.85 apiece on the NSE.

Shares of sugar manufacturers were witnessing buying interest for a second straight session after a report by credit ratings agency ICRA said that global sugar prices have fallen sharply amid surplus supply from Brazil, even as the outlook for the Indian sugar sector remains stable. This, thereby, raised hopes of margin expansion for sugar companies going ahead, analysts noted.

Jio Financial Services was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock advanced 4.59% to close at ₹248. Eternal, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, Adani Ports, TCS, Axis Bank and IndiGo also rose between 1.7% and 3.5%.

On the other hand, Cipla, Hindustan Unilever, Coal India, NTPC, Sun Pharma, Tata Consumer Products, Apollo Hospitals and Hindalco were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,538 shares ended higher while 707 closed lower on the NSE.