Sensex surges 105 points in early trade; Nifty reclaims 8,500-mark

The benchmark BSE Sensex surged over 105 points and the NSE Nifty reclaimed the 8,500-mark in early trade on Wednesday as traders continued buying, tracking a firm trend in other Asian bourses following record US markets’ closing on Tuesday.

Short-covering of bets, Wednesday being the last session of January expiry in the derivatives segment, kept the overall tempo up.

The 30-share index, which had gained 341.08 points in the previous two sessions, spurted by 105.92 points, or 0.38 per cent, at 27,481.50.

Metal, banking, capital goods, FMCG, oil and gas, IT and auto sector stocks were leading the rally, which lifted sentiments.

Bucking the trend, shares of telecom major Bharti Airtel plunged 3.27 per cent to Rs 306 on nervous selling after the company on Tuesday reported over 54 per cent fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 503.7 crore for the October-December quarter.

The NSE Nifty was also trading higher by 27.95 points, or 0.32 per cent, at 8,503.75.

Brokers said that the market mood remained buoyant, bolstered by domestic and foreign institutional investors’ buying coupled with a firming trend overseas, especially the US markets which ended on a big high in Tuesday’s trade acknowledging new President Donald Trump’s economic policies.

Closer home, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.23 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei gained 1.10 per cent while Shanghai Composite index edged higher by 0.21 per cent in early trade on Wednesday.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.57 per cent up on Tuesday.