Stock Market: Sensex Jumps 338 Points, Nifty Trades At 16,110; Consumer Leads, Titan Up 7%

Stock update: Titan, PowerGrid, M&M, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Wipro, and ICICI Bank were among the gainers on the BSE

Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Thursday gained on the back of softening crude prices.

At 10.25 am, the BSE Sensex rose 338 points at 54,089, while the broader NSE Nifty was trading at 16,110, up 121 points.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, Titan, PowerGrid, M&M, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Wipro, and ICICI Bank were among the gainers. On the flipside, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, Maruti Suzuki India, and Bharti Airtel were the laggards.

In their previous session on Wednesday, the BSE benchmark climbed 616 points (1.16 per cent) to settle at 53,750, the Nifty advanced 178 points (1.13 per cent) to 15,989.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices gained up to 0.9 per cent.

Sectorwise, Nifty consumer durables moved 2.4 per cent higher, led by Titan (up 7 per cent) that said its April-June quarter sales were up nearly three-fold from last year. IT, banks, auto, realty and metals were the other notable gainers.

On specific stocks, Titan, the jewellery and watch maker, led gains in Nifty 50 index, surging 7.2 per cent, after its first-quarter sales rose by 205 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai were trading in the green, while Hong Kong quoted lower.

The US markets ended higher on Wednesday.

"The sharp correction in crude, commodities like metals, and declining trend in edible oil indicate that inflation will come under control soon. Taking cues from these indicators, the bulls have again turned buyers and the near-term structure of the market has turned clearly bullish now. The crash in commodities and RBI's latest initiatives to increase foreign currency inflows have the potential to arrest further depreciation in rupee. This means FIIs are unlikely to sell more. This is positive for markets,” V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday raised overseas borrowing limits for companies and liberalised norms for foreign investments in government bonds as it announced a slew of measures to boost foreign exchange inflows in efforts to curb the fall of the rupee.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.79 per cent to $101.49 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors after a day's breather again sold shares worth Rs 330.13 crore in the capital market on Wednesday, as per exchange data.