SENSEX, NIFTY50 rise for a third straight session, NIFTY PSU Bank index closes at record high

The Indian equity benchmarks rose for a third straight session on Wednesday, February 18, led by gains in banking, financial services, metal and FMCG shares. The benchmarks flip-flopped between gains and losses for most part of the day but staged a strong bounce in the last hour of trade. The SENSEX rose as much as 606 points from the day's lowest level and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 25,828 after hitting a low of 25,645.

The SENSEX ended 283 points higher at 83,734 and NIFTY50 index advanced 94 points to close at 25,819.

Reliance Industries, ITC, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro and State Bank of India were top movers in the SENSEX, they alone contributed over 300 points towards the SENSEX.

Global market update

Asian markets ended higher with Japan's Nikkei rising 1% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index advancing 0.54%.

European shares were trading higher powered by defence and banking stocks while investors assessed corporate updates and reports of leadership changes at the European Central Bank, according to a Reuters report.

Germany's GAX advanced 0.8%, England's FTSE 100 index jumped 1% and France's CAC40 index 0.5%.

Sectoral landscape

Buying was visible across board as all the major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE), barring the measure of IT stocks, ended higher led by NIFTY PSU Bank index's 1.3% gain.

During the session, the gauge of state-run lenders advanced as much as 1.54% or 146 points to hit a record high of 9,647.

All 12 shares in the index ended higher led by Punjab National Bank's over 3% gain. Bank of Maharashtra, Punjab & Sind Bank, Union Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, UCO Bank, Indian Bank and Canara Bank also rose between 1.9%-2.6%.

NIFTY Metal, FMCG, Financial Services, Auto, Bank, Private Bank and Realty indices also rose between 0.5%-1.3%.

Shares in broader markets also witnessed buying interest as NIFTY Midcap 100 index advanced 0.5% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index rose 0.54%.

Among the individual shares, E2E Networks stock rallied as much as 20% to hit a high of ₹3,068.20 apiece on the NSE.

The stock skyrocketed after NVIDIA, in its blog, said that it was collaborating with next‑generation cloud providers Yotta, L&T, and E2E Networks to deliver advanced AI factories to meet India’s growing need for AI compute and enable it to develop AI models and services that drive innovation.

NIFTY50 top gainers and losers

Kwality Wall's was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock ended 5% higher at ₹29.34. HDFC Life, Tata Steel, ITC, Bajaj Auto, Tata Consumer Products, Mahindra & Mahindra and Axis Bank also rose between 1.4%-2.2%.

On the flipside, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Eternal, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Adani Ports and TCS were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,715 shares ended higher while 1,458 closed lower on the NSE.