Market bounce back: NIFTY50 crosses 23,000, SENSEX jumps 900 points from lows; Midcap and smallcap indices outperform

In a volatile session, Indian equity benchmarks managed to hold the morning gains in the mid-market session despite mixed cues from other Asian markets. Heavy buying at Realty and Industrials counters helped indices trade higher, while Zomato gained the most among major industry leaders on the BSE.

The broader indices outperformed the benchmark indices by a wider margin as the NIFTY mid-cap 100 and small-cap 100 witnessed sharp bounce-back rallies from the lower levels. The NIFTY midcap 100 traded 760 points or 1.5% higher at 50,517 and the NIFTY smallcap 100 traded 392 points higher at 15,561.

Market breadth largely went in favour of advances as 2071 stocks traded in the green on the NSE out of 2,754.

Pharmaceutical shares remained under pressure during the intraday trade on Wednesday, February 19, as investors remained concerned about US President Donald Trump's plans to impose 25% tariffs on imports of semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

On the global front, Asian markets were trading mixed after Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of 2.758 trillion yen in January. That missed forecasts for a shortfall of 2.104 trillion yen following the 132.5 billion yen surplus in December. Exports gained 7.2% year over year to 7.863 trillion yen, shy of expectations for an increase of 7.9% following the 2.8% gain in the previous month.

The SENSEX traded at 76162.42, up by 195.03 points or 0.26% after trading in a range of 75581.38 and 76338.58. The index had 18 stocks advancing and 12 stocks declining.

The broader indices were trading in green; the BSE mid-cap index rose by 1.26%, while the small-cap index was up by 2.46%.

The NIFTY50 traded at 22985.90, up by 40.60 points or 0.18% after trading in a range of 22814.85 and 23049.95. The index had 31 stocks advancing and 19 stocks declining.

Asian markets were trading mixed; Hang Seng declined 86.96 points or 0.38% to 22,889.85, Jakarta Composite plunged 35.49 points or 0.52% to 6,838.06, Nikkei 225 slipped 106.38 points or 0.27% to 39,164.02 and Taiwan Weighted lost 62.03 points or 0.26% to 23,604.08, while Shanghai Composite strengthened 23.56 points or 0.71% to 3,348.05, Straits Times rose 6.86 points or 0.17% to 3,932.42 and KOSPI increased 45.88 points or 1.72% to 2,672.69.