Sensex rises 287 pts, Nifty above 25,950; Tata Motors PV, Tata Steel lead gainers

Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty opened higher on Wednesday, looking set to break their three-day losing streak amid upbeat global cues and growing expectations of an imminent US Federal Reserve rate cut.

At 9:16 am, the BSE Sensex rose 190.27 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 84,777.28 after gaining nearly 287 points in early trade, while the NSE Nifty50 advanced 55.90 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 25,940.70, having briefly hit a day’s high of 25,975.45.    

Among Sensex constituents, Tata Motors PV led gainers, rising 1.52 per cent to Rs 357.80. Tata Steel gained 1.14 per cent, while Trent, L&T, and Tech Mahindra climbed 1.08 per cent, 0.98 per cent, and 0.90 per cent, respectively.

Wall Street finished higher overnight, with all three major US indices closing in the green. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.43 per cent to 47,112.45, while the S&P 500 rose 0.91 per cent to 6,765.88. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.67 per cent to settle at 23,025.59.

Asian markets traded higher on Wednesday. At last check, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.94 per cent to 49,605.57, while South Korea’s KOSPI advanced 1.92 per cent to 3,932.04. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index also gained 0.94 per cent to 25,982.14.

On Tuesday, the Sensex slipped 313.70 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 84,587.01, while the Nifty50 dropped 74.70 points, or 0.29 per cent, to finish at 25,884.80.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said the market at times tends to drift without any clear logic or identifiable triggers. “The very short-term movement can be against emerging fundamentals. The explanation for this indecisive movement can be found in technicals and market positioning related to futures expiry date,” he said.

“Often, on the expiry date the market witnesses high volatility in response to the speculative activity related to covering the short and long positions. Yesterday’s 74 point fall in Nifty despite the positive institutional buy figure of Rs 4697 crores is a case of such expiry-related volatility. The relevant question is: what should investors do during such indecisive movements in the market. The best strategy for retail investors is to refrain from trading and slowly accumulate fairy-valued  high quality growth stocks which will be available at attractive valuations due to heightened volatility. Such stocks will bounce back soon. Investors’ psychological behaviour is more important in such contexts,” Vijayakumar said.