SENSEX surges over 350 points, NIFTY50 24,450 led by gains in ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Tuesday, April 21, mirroring positive trend in other Asian markets on expectations of successful talks between United States and Iran to agree on peace in West Asia. The SENSEX rose as much as 445 points and NIFTY50 touched an intraday high of 24,486 powered by gains in index heavyweights like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel and State Bank of India.

As of 9:23 am, the SENSEX was up 350 points at 78,871 and NIFTY50 index advanced 96 points to 24,461.

Most of the Asian markets were trading higher on expectations of successful talks between Iran and US to end the war. Japan's Nikkei rose 1.3%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.6%, South Korea's KOSPI surged 2.23% and China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.2%.

Iran is considering attending peace talks with the United States in Pakistan, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, following moves by Islamabad to end a US blockade of Iran's ports, a significant obstacle to Tehran rejoining peace efforts as the end of a two-week ceasefire approaches.

Back home, buying was visible across board as all 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE), barring the measure of IT shares, were trading higher led by the NIFTY Realty index's 2.2% gain. NIFTY Bank, Financial Services, Privat Bank, PSU Bank and FMCG indices also rose between 0.6% and 1.15%.

Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 0.6% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.9%.

Among the individual shares, PNB Housing Finance jumped as much as 11% to hit an intraday high of ₹1,007 after the company recorded a 14% year-on-year (YoY) rise in fourth quarter net profits to ₹648.70 crore, compared to ₹567.11 crore in the same period a year ago, according to an exchange filing.

The company's board of directors also considered and recommended a final dividend of ₹8 per equity share with the face value of ₹10 apiece for the financial year ended 2025-26.

Nestle India was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 2% to ₹1,312 ahead of its March quarter earnings.

According to market experts, Nestle India could report double-digit growth in revenue and net profit, led by high domestic volume growth. Revenue could rise by 12% to 14% YoY in the range of ₹6,230 to ₹6,370 crore, while net profit is estimated to increase by 11% to 14% YoY to ₹990 to ₹1010 crore.

Asian Paints, Axis Bank, Eternal, Adani Ports, Bajaj Finance and InterGlobe Aviation also rose between 1.2% and 1.66%.

On the flip side, SBI Life, HDFC Life, Dr Reddy's Labs, Jio Financial Services, Tech Mahindra and UltraTech Cement were notable losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was positive 2,255 shares were advancing while 604 were declining on the NSE.