SENSEX surges over 500 points, NIFTY50 reclaims 25,550; IT stocks rebound on value buying

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Wednesday, February 25, on the back of strong global cues. The SENSEX rose as much as 581 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 25,595 led by a strong rebound in information technology (IT) shares like Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tech Mahindra.

As of 9:35 am, the SENSEX rose 516 points to 82,741 and NIFTY50 index advanced 148 points to 25,573.

Asian markets were trading higher taking cues from strong closing of US markets overnight. Japan's Nikkei rose 1.44% to a fresh all-time high and South Korea's KOSPI advanced 2.14% to hit a record high powered by gains in chip makers.

China's Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.84% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.5%.

US stocks rebounded on Tuesday as investors reassessed the impact of AI on existing services. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.76%, S&P 500 index advanced 0.77% and tech heavy Nasdaq climbed 1.04%.

Back home, buying was visible across board as all the major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading higher led by the NIFTY IT index's 2.5% gain. IT stocks came under buying interest on account of value buying and short covering after a major selloff in IT shares which saw the IT index collapse over 20% in last one month, analysts noted.

NIFTY Metal, Realty, Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, Private Bank, Media, FMCG and Bank indices also rose between 0.3% and 1.3%.

Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as NIFTY Midcap 100 index advanced 0.43% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index gained 0.5%.

Among the individual shares, stocks of solar energy companies such as Waaree Energies, Premier Energies and Vikram Solar were trading with significant losses after the Trump administration set preliminary duty of 126% on solar imports from India after determining the country "unfairly subsidised manufacturing".

Tech Mahindra was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 2.5% to ₹1,379. TCS, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Power Grid, Infosys, InterGlobe Aviation, Tata Steel and Hindalco also rose between 1.25% and 2.25%.

On the other hand, Dr Reddy's Labs, Max Healthcare, Eicher Motors, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, Shriram Finance and Asian Paints were among the notable losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,801 shares were advancing while 801 were declining on the NSE.