Sensex rises over 100 points, Nifty tops 17,750; Divi's Lab, Adani Enterprises & Cipla jump up to 5%

Indian equity benchmarks turned positive in Wednesday's trade after opening slightly lower amid a volatile session. The domestic indices extended their gains for the eighth straight session today led by strong buying interest in pharma, metal, consumer durables, automobiles and energy stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 125 points or 0.21 per cent to trade at 60,283, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 51 points or 0.29 per cent higher to trade at 17,773. Mid- and small-cap shares were up as Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.21 per cent and small-cap gained 0.24 per cent.

Investors would be keenly watching March quarter (Q4) earnings, retail inflation and industrial production data, scheduled to be released after market hours, for cues. IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) would report its quarterly results later in the day.

"The correlation between eight straight days of FII buying and seven straight days of Nifty appreciation is significant. Another trend is that beyond sectoral moves like strength in banking and autos and weakness in IT, there are bouts of activity in individual stocks. This stock-specific action triggered by results/news is likely to gather momentum in the coming days," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 342.84 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DII) sold shares worth Rs 264.02 crore on April 11, NSE's provisional data showed.

13 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty Pharma, Nifty Metal, Nifty Consumer Durables, Nifty Auto and Nifty Oil & Gas were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 1.09 per cent, 0.59 per cent, 0.53 per cent, 0.34 per cent and 0.31 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Divi's Lab was the top Nifty gainer as the stock jumped 4.53 per cent to trade at Rs 3,060. Adani Enterprises, Cipla, Adani Ports and Reliance Industries rose up to 2.23 per cent.

In contrast, IndusInd Bank, ONGC, Nestle India, PowerGrid and Hero MotoCorp slipped up to 0.86 per cent.

The overall market breadth was strong as 1,841 shares were advancing while 873 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, Reliance, HDFC twins (HDFC and HDFC Bank), L&T, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, Titan, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and Tata Motors were among the top gainers.

On the flip side, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank were trading in the red.

Sensex had jumped 311 points, or 0.52 per cent, to close at 60,157.72 on Tuesday, while Nifty had added 98 points, or 0.56 per cent, to settle at 17,722.30.

Nifty outlook

"The market will remain a buy on dips as long as the index remains above 17,450. The immediate support is visible at 17,650. On the higher end, the rally may extend towards 17,850-17,950 levels," said Deven Mehata, Equity Research Analyst, Choice Broking.

Also read: HDFC Bank shares in focus ahead of board meet to raise funds, Q4 earnings

Also read: TCS Q4 results preview: Profit may grow 14-19%; order wins likely in $8.5-10 billion range