SENSEX jumps 1,300 pts; NIFTY tops 23,780; here is what is supporting the market

The S&P BSE SENSEX zoomed as much as 1,327.37 points, or 1.72%, to 78,371.66, while the NSE's NIFTY50 index was trading at 23,775.30, up 338.10 points, or 1.44%.

The stocks rallied despite a decline in US stocks last night following a warning by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on US economic growth.

US stocks, particularly tech stocks, slid on Wall Street after Nvidia said it will take a $5.5 billion financial hit after Washington placed fresh restrictions on the export of its H20 artificial intelligence chips to China.

The chips totalled an estimated $12 billion to $15 billion in revenue last year. Advanced Micro Devices echoed similar concerns, saying in a filing Wednesday that it expects an $800 million hit from curbs on its MI308 products.

Besides, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said US economic growth appears to be slowing amid Trump's tariff announcements.

Powell said larger-than-expected tariffs likely mean higher inflation and slower growth. But he said the Fed would wait for more data on the economy's direction before making any changes to interest rates, said a Reuters report.

Reacting to these developments, stocks in the US ended sharply lower.

Following suit, Indian IT stocks declined in the trade. The NIFTY IT index slipped over 2%. However, other sectors supported the market.

Financial stocks rallied in the trade. Last seen, the NIFTY BANK index was trading over 1.2% higher at 53,765.10 levels. Out of 12 constituents, 10 were trading in the green and the rest in the red.

The biggest gainers were ICICI Bank (up around 2.5%), Canara Bank (up 1.24%), and HDFC Bank (up 1.16%).

The NIFTY BANK index has been on a rising spree and has gained nearly 6% in the past five sessions.

The banking shares caught investors' interest after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a repo rate cut last week in a move to support growth.

Following the rate cut by the RBI, a whole host of banks announced interest rate cuts, thereby reducing borrowing costs.

Last week, global investment bank Goldman Sachs came out with a report in which it said that it sees early signs of improvement in asset quality and operating profitability, which added to the bullish sentiment for banking shares, analysts said.

The NIFTY FINANCIAL SERVICES index was trading 1.21% higher at 25,800.70 levels. 15 out of 20 constituents were trading in the green, and the rest five in negative territory.

Other sectoral indices, too, were trading with decent gains.

On the BSE, the BSE Telecommunication index was trading over 2% higher at 2,894.95 levels.

Broader Market

The BSE MidCap index was trading at 41,905.88, up 0.38%, while the BSE SmallCap index was trading at 47,989.37, up 291.02 points, or 0.61%.