Sensex, Nifty tick higher amid global rally

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex defied gravity for the third session on the trot on Thursday, propelled by robust buying in IT, finance and power stocks amid a rally in global equities.

A strengthening rupee further shored up investor confidence, traders said. The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 384.72 points or 0.68 per cent to end at 57,315.28. Similarly, the NSE Nifty advanced 117.15 points or 0.69 per cent to 17,072.60.

PowerGrid was the top gainer among the Sensex constituents, rising 3.40 per cent, followed by ITC, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, NTPC, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and SBI. In contrast, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Maruti, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints and ICICI Bank were among the laggards, shedding up to 0.93 per cent.

"Domestic bourses continued to trade firm mirroring an upbeat mood in the global markets led by gains in realty, financials and IT stocks, while broader markets strengthened. US third quarter GDP expanded at an annualised 2.3 per cent, which is higher than expected. Reports on reduced risk of hospitalisation and severity of Omicron as compared to the Delta variant has supported the upward momentum along with favourable US economic data," said Vinod Nair, head (research) at Geojit Financial Services.

Ajit Mishra, V-P (research), Religare Broking, adds: "Markets are taking comfort from their global counterparts, but it will be difficult to extend the rebound amid the updates on rising Covid cases. Participants should continue with a cautious approach and maintain their focus on stock selection. Apart from IT, we're seeing select counters from pharma and FMCG also doing well.