Stock Market: Sensex Surges 670 Points, Nifty Trades Above 16,500; IT, Metal Lead

Stock update: TechM was the lead gainer, up 2.36 per cent. Besides, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, IndusInd Bank, and Titan emerged as the biggest gainers on the BSE

The key Indian equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Wednesday opened higher taking cues from the positive sentiment in the global market and cut in windfall tax by the government on fuel exports.

At 10.30 am, the BSE Sensex was up 670 points at 55,437, while the broader NSE Nifty was trading at 16,539, up 198 points.

On the 30-share BSE platform, TechM was the lead gainer, up 2.36 per cent. Besides, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, IndusInd Bank, and Titan emerged as the biggest gainers. On the flipside, only Bharti Airtel and M&M were the losers on the BSE.

On specific stock, HUL, which logged a 14 per cent rise in its net profit on Tuesday, opened weak. However, the FMCG major soon gathered momentum rising 1 per cent. 

In the broader markets, Midcap and Smallcap shares were trading on a strong note as Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.59 per cent and Smallcap climbed 0.97 per cent.

On NSE, all the 15 sector gauges were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty IT, Nifty Metal, and Nifty Oil & Gas were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 1.10 per cent, 1.21 per cent, and 1.94 per cent, respectively.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,071 shares were advancing, while 457 were declining on the BSE.

In the previous session on Tuesday, Sensex had climbed 246 points (0.45 per cent) to close at 54,768, while Nifty had moved 62 points (0.38 per cent) higher to settle at 16,341.

In Asia, markets in Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading significantly higher.

The US markets had also ended sharply higher on Tuesday.

"The sharp 8 per cent pullback in Nifty from June lows of 15,183 is all set to continue aided by a flood of good news. First, the US markets have rebounded sharply driven by impressive corporate earnings. Second, FPI selling appears to have bottomed out. FPIs have bought 5 days this month. Third, the relief announced by the government for the petroleum sector through reduction in windfall tax and cuts in duties on exports will be a major boost for the sector, particularly for RIL," said V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.39 per cent to $106.93 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net buyers on Tuesday picking up shares worth Rs 976.40 crore, as per exchange data.