Stock market: Sensex jumps 676 pts, Nifty tops 25,350; Eternal shares up 6%

Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty opened higher on Thursday, supported by a positive global market backdrop and and easing global jitters. Investor looking at the ongoing earnings season, with several heavyweight companies, including JSW Steel, Bharat Petroleum and Adani Green, scheduled to report their December-quarter results later in the day.

At 9:18 am, the BSE Sensex jumped 513.82 points, or 0.63%, to 82,423.45 after gaining nearly 676 points in early trade. The NSE Nifty rose 154.30 points, or 0.61%, to 25,311.80, after briefly touching a high of 25,355.60. 

Among Sensex constituents, Eternal advanced 6.21% to Rs 301. Asian Paints gained 1.31%, while Adani Ports, SBI and BEL rose 1.32%, 1.24% and 1.22%, respectively.

Asian markets traded in the green. At last check, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.87% to 53,760.85, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.93% to 5,004.92. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged up 0.02% to 26,591.40.

All three of the major indices closed higher on Wall Street overnight. The S&P 500 advanced 1.16% to close at 6,875.62, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.21% to 49,077.23. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.18% to settle at 23,224.82.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Sensex slipped 270.84 points, or 0.33%, to settle at 81,909.63, while the Nifty declined 75 points, or 0.30%, to end at 25,157.50.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, said the latest turn in US policy once again underscored what he described as a classic ‘TACO (Trump Again Chickens Out)’ moment.

He said that President Trump has stepped back from his earlier threat to annex Greenland by force, if necessary, and instead indicated at Davos that we have reached a framework of a future deal on Greenland.

Vijayakumar said the more market-relevant signal was the US assurance that it would refrain from imposing tariffs on Europe, effectively easing fears of a US–Europe trade war that had been weighing on equities.

According to him, the relief rally seen in the market could gather momentum, given the heavy build-up of nearly two lakh short contracts and a market structure that is conducive to short-covering.

“The Q3 profitability of companies has been affected by higher provisions for the new labour code commitments. But the market will shrug it off since this is a one time commitment. Among the results announced yesterday Eternal stands out with better-than-expected revenue and profit growth from quick commerce business," Vijayakumar added.