Sensex rises 85 points, Nifty settles above 18,750; PCBL, Aster DM Healthcare jump up to 9%; Tata Teleservices falls 5%

Indian equity benchmarks on Wednesday extended their gains for the third straight session in a highly volatile trade. The domestic indices climbed today led by gains in consumer, metals and energy stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack rose 85 points or 0.14 per cent to close at 63,229; while the broader NSE Nifty index moved 40 points or 0.21 per cent up to settle at 18,756. Mid and smallcap shares finished on a positive note, with the Nifty Midcap 100 up 0.21 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 rising 0.12 per cent. Fear index, India VIX, edged 0.47 per cent higher to 11.16.

"The domestic indices rebounded after an initial phase of profit booking, driven by encouraging WPI (wholesale) inflation data and positive global cues, while selling in IT and banking stocks kept a check on gains," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

The WPI price-based inflation rate fell to a 3-year low of (-) 3.48 per cent in May on easing prices of food, fuel and manufactured items.

On the global front, Asian markets were mostly down ahead of the US Federal Reserve policy decision, scheduled to be released at 11:30 pm tonight. Overnight, Wall Street equities closed higher, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 hitting fresh one-year highs.

Back home, buying interest in select index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Tata Motors and Kotak Mahindra Bank also lifted the indices higher.

Eight out of the 15 sectoral indices on NSE settled in the green. Nifty FMCG, Nifty Consumer Durables, Nifty Metal and Nifty Energy outperformed the index by rising 0.59 per cent, 0.46 per cent, 1.42 per cent and 0.91 per cent, respectively. Although, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Bank fell up to 0.37 per cent.

On the stock-specific front, Tata Consumer Products emerged as the top Nifty gainer as the stock jumped 5.17 per cent to close at Rs 862.25. Grasim Industries, JSW Steel, Tata Steel and PowerGrid gained up to 2.42 per cent.

Also, PCBL, Aster DM Healthcare, Shyam Metalics, VMart Retail and Galaxy Surfactants surged up to 8.60 per cent.

In contrast, Tata Teleservices and Zomato slipped up to 5.49 per cent.

Out of a total of 3,709 stocks that traded during the day on BSE, 1,940 settled with gains while 1,646 others ended lower. The rest 123 stocks stayed unchanged.

Nifty outlook

"Nifty witnessed a decent pullback after the 3 sessions of sluggishness and slight profit booking, to close above the 18,700 zone to improve the bias and has turned the daily trend up after 3 days to anticipate for a further upward move. The index is heading for the initial upside target of 18,900 levels, as mentioned earlier also, with some of the major frontline stocks once again showing improvement in their bias and anticipating further gains in the coming days. The support for the day is seen at 18,600 levels while the resistance is seen at 18,850 levels," said Vaishali Parekh, Vice-President - Technical Research at Prabhudas Lilladher.

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