SENSEX surges over 800 points, NIFTY50 reclaims 23,100 led by gains in Reliance, Infosys, TCS

The Indian equity benchmarks extended gains after staging a gap up opening on Wednesday, October 21, mirroring positive trend in Asian markets. The SENSEX surged as much as 829 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 23,121 powered by gains in index heavyweights like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro and HCL Technologies.

As of 9:48 am, the SENSEX was up 664 points at 74,517 and NIFTY50 index advanced 185 points to 23,073.

Asian markets were trading higher on Wednesday following Wall Street's gain as early indications from the corporate earnings season pointed to strong profits for ‌global companies and bolstered investor confidence, news agency Reuters reported.

Japan's Nikkei rose 1.23%, Taiwan Weighted gained 1.8%, South Korea's KOSPI surged 3.76% and China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.17%.

Overnight, US shares mostly ended higher on the back of strong profit reports from Equifax, Hasbro and other companies, while oil prices eased back after nearing their highest levels since the war with Iran began.

Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 1.02%, S&P 500 index gained 0.28% and tech heavy Nasdaq index slipped 0.02%.

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 over 2% gain. NIFTY PSU Bank, Bank, FMCG, Metal, Pharma, Private Bank, Realty, Healthcare and Oil & Gas indices also rose between 0.5% and 1%.

Broader markets were underperforming their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 index advanced 0.16% while NIFTY Smallcap 100 index was unchanged.

Among the individual shares, L&T Technology Services surged as much as 14.72% to an intraday high of ₹4,143 after the company post market hours on Monday said that its revenue rose 3.4% sequentially to ₹3,040 crore. In dollar terms, its revenue advanced 2.7% to $317 million.

The company recorded large deal TCV wins of $200 plus million in Q2, with AI-related deals accounting for over 50% of the total. Wins included one $75 million deal, one $30 plus million deal, one $25 million deal and six $10 plus million each, L&T Technology Services said in a press release.

Infosys was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 3.2% to ₹1,167. TCS, Ultratech Cement, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HCL Technologies, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra, JSW Steel, ITC and Jio Financial Services also rose between 1.3% and 2.5%.

On the flip side, Bajaj Finance, Trent, Bharat Electronics, HDFC Life, Bajaj Finserv, Eicher Motors and Nestle were notable losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,882 shares were declining while 1,148 were advancing on the NSE.