Market rises for third session: Sensex zooms 813 pts, Nifty closes above 16,550

Benchmarks indices closed higher for the third straight session on Thursday amid an overall bullish trend in Asian equities. Sensex started in the green and zoomed 1,595.14 points or 2.91 per cent intraday to 56,242.47. However, it pared some gains during the fag-end of trade amid weak European markets and a rise in oil prices. Sensex closed at 55,464.39, rising 817.06 points or 1.50 per cent.

Nifty jumped 249.55 points or 1.53 per cent to close at 16,594.90. Hindustan Unilever Limited, Tata Steel, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Nestle and Maruti Suzuki India were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 5.17 per cent.

Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Tata Consultancy Services were the only Sensex losers, falling up to 1.28%.

"Indian market witnessed a strong recovery after a brutal fall thanks to some positive news flows on the Russia-Ukraine standoff that to rally in global equity markets and cool off in commodity prices. The outcome of state election results is also acting as a tailwind for the Indian equity market however, it has the impact of only one day and the main focus of the market will remain on the Russia-Ukraine issue because there are still uncertainties.

Share Market updates: Sensex rises 800 pts, Nifty ends above 16,550; HUL, Tata Steel, SBI top gainers

"US inflations numbers will be announced today and it will act as a critical factor in the upcoming US Fed meeting. Markets are likely to remain volatile till the Fed meeting," said Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart Ltd.

BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 244 points and 314 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, banking shares were the top gainers with the BSE bankex rising 767 points to 39,488. Consumer durables and capital goods shares also gained with their BSE indices rising 646 points and 371 points, respectively. BSE auto index too zoomed 406 points to 22,845.

The market breadth was positive with 2,433 shares ending higher against 929 stocks in the red. 98 shares were unchanged. Market cap of BSE-listed firms rose to Rs 251.93 lakh crore against Rs 248.34 lakh crore market cap in the previous session.

Foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree in Indian markets as they offloaded shares worth Rs 4,818.71 crore on a net basis on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, the rupee climbed 20 paise to close at 76.42 against the US dollar on Thursday, supported by positive domestic equities and trends in state election results. On Wednesday, the rupee had risen 38 paise to close at 76.62 against the US dollar following a retreat in crude oil prices and rebound in domestic equities.

Global markets

Bourses in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai settled higher.

Stock exchanges in the US settled with significant gains on Wednesday. European stock exchanges were trading lower.

In the previous session, Sensex closed at 54,647.33, higher by 1,223.24 points or 2.29 per cent, notching up the biggest single-day gain since February 25.

The Nifty also climbed 331.90 points or 2.07 per cent to end at 16,345.35.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 4.91 per cent to $116.6 a barrel.