Sensex climbs 350 points, Nifty tops 12,200 amid firm global cues

The benchmark equity indices opened higher on Wednesday following firm Asian cues. The 30-share BSE Sensex traded over 350 points, or 0.87 per cent, up at 41,573 in early trade, while the 50-share NSE Nifty index was up 98 points, or 0.81 per cent, at 12,206.

Market participants will take cues from the release of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) data later in the day, in a bid to map economic activity.

As many as 28 stocks in the Sensex pack were trading in the green, with Tata Steel rallying the most -- 2 per cent. It was followed by State Bank of India (up 1.13 per cent), Axis Bank (up 1.11 per cent), ICICI Bank (up 1.10 per cent) and HUL (1 per cent).

On the other hand, IndusInd Bank and Sun Pharma were down 1.83 per cent and 0.02 per cent, respectively.

Pankaj Bobade, Head - Fundamental Research, Axis Securities said, “Market movements would be linked to global market sentiments in the short run, ultimate market direction would be decided by domestic earnings. So far, the quarterly results have been better than expected. Given the uncertainty associated from China, an investor should position himself in sectors driven by domestic consumption. Commodities and companies solely dependent on Chinese supply chains for their raw material needs should be avoided.”


Barring the BSE Capital Goods (down 0.14 per cent) index, other indices were trading in the green. The BSE Metal, Bankex, Auto, FMCG, TECk and Oil & Gas were up between 0.50-1.25 per cent.

The US markets ended mostly higher on Tuesday as Chinese officials said the deadly coronavirus epidemic could be contained by April. Asian peers including Hang Seng, Nikkei and Shanghai gained up to 0.75 per cent on Wednesday amid hopes the worst of the coronavirus in China may have passed, although prevailing uncertainty about the outbreak has kept investors wary.