Weaker Re, FII selling cap gains on bourses

Mumbai: Market benchmarks marched higher for the second straight session on Wednesday, mirroring a sharp rebound in global equities amid signs of easing geopolitical tensions. However, a depreciating rupee and continued selling by foreign investors capped the gains, traders said. The 30-share BSE Sensex surged 657.39 points or 1.14 per cent to finish at 58,465.97. NSE Nifty too jumped 197.05 points or 1.14 per cent to 17,463.80.

Maruti was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 4.14 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Titan, HCL Tech, Wipro, and Bharti Airtel. Only three counters closed in the red -- Sun Pharma, ITC and PowerGrid, dipping up to 0.72 per cent.

"The domestic market joined the global rally with all major sectors barring PSU Banks trading with gains. US stocks rallied on Tuesday shrugging off concerns over rising crude oil and rate hike worries ahead of the release of US inflation data. RBI's policy announcement will be the key focus on Thursday as domestic inflation and policy tightening by global central banks would pressurise the central bank to adopt a similar stance," said Vinod Nair, head (research) at Geojit Financial Services.

Deepak Jasani, head (retail research), HDFC Securities, adds: "Advance-decline ratio has turned positive. Nifty has commenced its journey up ahead of the RBI MPC meet outcome on Thursday. Seeming cooling off of Russia-Ukraine tussle and reversal in oil prices have helped sentiments turn up across the globe. In case the RBI raises repo rate (and not reverse repo rate) the markets could take it negatively."

Barring oil & gas, all BSE sectoral indices finished higher. Auto climbed 2.18 per cent, followed by consumer durables, metal, finance, bankex and industrials. The BSE midcap and smallcap indices spurted as much as 1.23 per cent.