Stock Market: Sensex Rises 166 Points, Nifty Tops 16,500 Amid High Volatility

Stock Market: L&T was the lead gainer, up 2.86 per cent. The others were Sun Pharma, TCS, IndusInd, SBI, HCL Tech, and others on the BSE

The Indian equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Wednesday opened flat in opening trade amid high volatility. However, the domestic indices recouped their losses and turned positive. Asian stocks were mostly trading in the red as investors awaited the monetary policy outcome of US Federal Reserve.

At 10.30 am, the BSE Sensex was up 166 points at 55,434, while the broader NSE Nifty was trading at 16,525, up 42 points.  

On the 30-share BSE platform, L&T was the lead gainer, up 2.86 per cent. The others were Sun Pharma, TCS, IndusInd, SBI, HCL Tech, and others. On the flipside, Bajaj Finserv was the main loser, down 1.42 per cent. The others were Kotak Bank, Airtel, Bajaj Finance, Reliance, ITC, Tata Steel, and Maruti.

In the broader markets, Midcap and Smallcap shares were negative as Nifty Midcap 100 slipped 0.21 per cent and Smallcap shed 0.34 per cent.

On NSE, 12 out of the 15 sector gauges were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty Consumer Durables and Nifty Financial Services were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 1.04 per cent and 0.33 per cent, respectively.

The overall market breadth was slightly weak as 1,150 shares were advancing, while 1,381 were declining on the BSE.

In the previous session on Tuesday, Sensex had plunged 498 points (0.89 per cent) to close at 55,268, while Nifty had moved 147 points (0.88 per cent) lower to settle at 16,484.

In Asia, markets in Seoul, Hong Kong, and Shanghai were trading lower, while Tokyo quoted marginally higher. The US markets had ended lower on Tuesday.

"The US Fed announcement on interest rates expected late tonight is unlikely to impact equity markets in a big way since the most likely outcome of 75 bps (basis points) rate hike has been discounted by the markets. The market, which continues to be volatile, is swinging between fears of an imminent US recession on one side and hopes of the US avoiding a sharp economic slowdown on the other. Only time will tell which of the two scenarios will play out," V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.10 per cent to $104.50 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors again offloaded shares worth Rs 1,548.29 crore on Tuesday, as per exchange data.