Bears obscuring short positions supported stocks’ belated recovery and helped erase losses.
Of the 30 stocks on the Sensex, 17 companies ended the day in the green, while the remaining 13 were loss-making
The domestic stock market rose for a third consecutive session on Wednesday, ending the day on a positive note with strong buying of banking and financial stocks amid a bearish trend in global stock markets. The BSE Sensex gained 123.63 points to settle at 60,348.09, while the NSE Nifty rose 42.95 points to 17,754.40. However, the rupee weakened by 13 paise to close at 82.05 (preliminary) against the US dollar.
Of the 30 shares on the Sensex, 17 companies ended the day in the green, while the remaining 13 were loss-making. The Sensex had lost over 300 in early morning trading, but later recovered to the green territory with a gain of 123.63 points. The BSE benchmark saw the day’s low at 59,844.82 and the day’s high at 60,402.85.
Most Asian markets, including Hang Seng and MSCI AC Asia Pacific, saw declines. Stock markets in Europe traded with losses in the afternoon session. US markets had finished significantly lower during the overnight session.
In addition, bears obscuring short positions supported stocks’ belated recovery and helped erase losses, traders said. However, a weak rupee against major foreign rivals weighed on market sentiment and limited profits, they added.
On the Sensex, IndusInd Bank was the biggest winner with an increase of 4.75 percent, followed by M&M, L&T, NTPC, ITC, Ultra Cement, Tata Steel, Maruti and SBI.
In contrast, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and Sun Pharma were among the biggest losers, falling to 2.30 percent.
Vinod Nair, head (research) at Geojit Financial Services, said: “The global market has slipped back into the grip of uncertainty as the US Fed chief signaled the possibility of a prolonged and faster rate hike, contradicting a dovish comment from another Fed. official last week.”
He added that the market now expects a rate hike of 50 basis points, pushing the dollar index to a three-month high. By the end of the day, however, there was a strong recovery in the domestic market, which kept the bulls moving.
International oil benchmark Brent crude was down 0.16 percent at $83.16 a barrel. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital markets as they bought shares worth Rs 721.37 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
The rupee fell 13 paise on Wednesday to close at 82.05 (preliminary) against the US dollar.
Read all the latest business news here
