Sensex jumps 490 points, Nifty reclaims 19,100; Solara Pharma up 15%; SGS Syrma down 12%

Domestic equity markets snapped the two-day losing streak and settled with big gains on Thursday amid the firm positive global cues. The dovish tone from the US Federal Reserve about rate cuts in the near-future pushed the domestic equities higher. All round buying supported the sentiments.

The monetary policy outcome by the US Federal Reserve kept the traders on tenterhooks, who are expecting high interest rates for a longer period. Weakness in metals, IT and auto counters weighed on the market during the day.

For the day, BSE Sensex jumped 489.57 points, or 0.77 per cent, to end at 64,080.90. NSE's Nifty gained 144.10 points, or 0.76 per cent to end the session at 19,133.25. However, broader markets outperformed the headline peers as BSE midcap and smallcap indices rose over a per cent each. Fear gauge India VIX dropped more than 8 per cent to 11.08-levels.

The US Federal Reserve's decision to keep policy rates unchanged fuelled a global rally and helped benchmark indices reverse their 2-day losing streak, said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities.

"Across the board buying propelled Sensex to close above the 64k-mark, as investors cheered the US Fed decision in the backdrop of rising global uncertainty further worsened by the ongoing conflict in West Asia, higher inflation and strong FII fund outflows," he said.

All the sectoral indices settled in green for the day. The Nifty Realty index gained about 3 per cent, while the Nifty PSU bank index gained about 2 per cent for the day. The Nifty Oil & Gas and metal indices gained more than a per cent each. The Nifty FMCG, Consumer durable and healthcare indices were other key outperformers for the day.

In the Nifty50 pack, Britannia Industries and Hindalco Industries gained about 3 per cent each, while IndusInd Bank and Apollo Hospitality gained about 2 per cent each. Eicher Motors, Grasim Industries, UPL and Tata Motors were the other key gainers for the day. On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp dropped more than a per cent, while Bajaj Auto was down half a per cent.

A pause with dovish commentary from the Fed led to a rebound in the global and domestic market sentiment, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. "The fall in US bond yields indicates a prolonged pause in interest rates hike. And the domestic macros are favourable with positive auto numbers, a surge in GST collection, good factory data and better than estimated Q2 quarter earnings."

A total of 3,791 shares were traded on BSE on Thursday, of which 2,312 settled with gains. 1,335 stocks ended the session with gains while 144 shares remained unchanged. During the day, a dozen shares hit their upper circuit, whereas only five shares tested the lower circuit levels for the day.

In the broader markets, Solara Active Pharma Science and PTC India Financial Services gained more than 15 per cent each, while Jaiprakash Associates gained 14 per cent. LT Foods surged more than 13 per cent, while KDDL ended 12 per cent higher for the day.

On the contrary, Syrma SGS Technology dropped more than 12 per cent, while Datamatics Global Services declined 11 per cent for the day. Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation tumbled 8 per cent. Karnataka Bank and Deepak Fertilizers were down 7 per cent each.

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