SENSEX rises over 400 points, NIFTY50 above 24,100; IT index surges 3.5%

The Indian equity benchmarks were trading sharply higher on Thursday, July 2, as investor sentiment turned positive after crude oil prices declined for a second straight session while recently underperforming information technology (IT) stocks came under buying interest as valuations became attractive.

The SENSEX rose as much as 429 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 24,123 led by gains in index heavyweights like Infosys, HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Tech, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

As of 9:25 am, the SENSEX was up 403 points at 77,332 and NIFTY50 index advanced 118 points to 24,122.

Sentiment turned positive as crude oil prices declined for a second straight session on Thursday as talks between United States and Iran progressed, easing concerns about potential disruptions to crude supplies in the Middle East.

Brent crude futures dropped as much as 2% to $70.

Back home, buying was visible across board as all the 15 major sector gauges, barring the measure of PSU banks, were trading higher led by the NIFTY IT index's over 3.5% gain. NIFTY Auto, Bank, Financial Services, Metal, Pharma, Private Bank, Realty, Healthcare and Consumer Durables indices also rose between 0.2% and 0.7%.

Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 0.31% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.41%.

Infosys was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 4.54% to ₹1,031. HCL Technologies, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Eternal, Hindalco, Wipro, IndiGo and Bajaj Finserv also rose between 1.33% and 4%.

On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, NTPC, Max Healthcare, Bharat Electronics and Tata Consumer Products were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,973 shares were advancing while 822 were declining on the NSE.