SENSEX rises over 500 points, NIFTY50 above 24,200 led by gains in ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Wednesday, July 15, mirroring gains in other Asian markets after crude prices softened to $81 per barrel after hitting $87 in the previous session.

The SENSEX rose as much as 558 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 24,208 led by gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel.

As of 9:26 am, the SENSEX was up 544 points at 77,599 and NIFTY50 index advanced 158 points to 24,209.

Asian markets were trading higher powered by a rally in chip makers led by South Korean chip maker SK Hynix. Japan's Nikkei rose 1%, South Korea's KOSPI index jumped 7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.6%.

US stocks ended higher on Tuesday after a report showed U.S. inflation was not as bad last month as economists expected, news agency AP reported.

Dow Jones Industrial Average ended on a flat note, tech heavy Nasdaq gained 0.9% and S&P 500 index closed 0.4% higher.

Back home, buying was visible across board as 12 of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading higher led by the NIFTY PSU Bank index's 1.27% gain. NIFTY Bank, Financial Services, Private Bank, Realty, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas and Auto indices also rose between 0.75% and 1.15%.

On the flip side, select IT, metal and media shares were facing selling pressure.

The broader markets were also witnessing strong buying interest as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 0.6% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index climbed 0.9%.

Among the individual shares, Nuvoco Vistas rose for a second straight session, the stock advanced as much as 9.84% to hit an intraday high of ₹375 after the company said that its cement capacity in the first quarter of current financial year rose from 27 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) to 35 MMTPA.

Tata Elxsi shares dropped as much as 6.12% to touch an intraday low of ₹3,473.75 after its June quarter earnings failed to enthuse investors.

Design and technology services provider on Tuesday reported an 18.17% increase in net profit to ₹170.59 crore during the June quarter of FY27, driven by growth in key verticals and strong deal execution.

The company had posted a profit of ₹144.36 crore in the same quarter of the preceding fiscal, according to a regulatory filing.

Tata Elxsi’s revenue from operations rose 14.46% to ₹1,021.1 crore in Q1 FY27, compared to ₹892.09 crore in Q1 FY26.

Shriram Finance was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 3.2% to ₹1,046. Bajaj Finance, HDFC Life, SBI Life, Bajaj Auto, IndiGo, Axis Bank, Eicher Motors, State Bank of India and Ultratech Cement also rose between 1.32% and 2.5%.

On the other hand, Hindalco, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Labs, TCS, Power Grid, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Consumer Products and NTPC were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,203 shares were advancing while 603 were declining on the NSE.