Closing Bell: Nifty near 17,400, Sensex gains over 200 points; Market extends rally to 6th session, IT stocks shine

The Indian market closed in the green for the sixth consecutive session amid high volatility on Wednesday. Taking cues from Asian market, which largely traded higher in the afternoon today, the benchmark indices gained around 025 % in the closing on Wednesday. After a flat start, the broader Nifty50 ended near 17,400, while the Sensex gained over 200 points to settle above 58,300.  

"Amidst the geopolitical storm affecting the global markets, domestic markets moved in-line with its global peers. The global market is also concerned about recessionary risk," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. On the domestic front, the major trigger this week will be the RBI’s policy meeting outcome, where the market is largely expecting a 25-50bps rate hike, Nair added.

Underperforming the barometer indices, the Nifty Midcap and Smallcap dropped around 0.6% and 0.5% respectively.  

On the sectoral front, Nifty IT and Oil & Gas gained the most, while auto, pharma and realty were among the top laggards on Wednesday.  

Speaking on Bank Nifty trends, Kunal Shah, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities, said the the Banking index sideways action and ended on a flat note ahead of the RBI policy witnessed . "The index needs to close above 38,200 for a continuation of the uptrend towards the level of the 38,500-38,700 zone. The downside support stands at 37500 and if breached, it will witness further selling pressure towards the 37,000 zone. The index will give a clear direction once a policy is announced," he added

Earlier, Tech Mahindra and Infosys led the rally on the Nifty50 and Sensex as Nifty IT gained nearly 1.3% on a closing basis. Titan, Asian Paints, TCS, ICICI Bank, RIL, HDFC, Wipro and Bharti Airtel were among top gainers on the indices.  

Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki, Kotak Bank, Tata Motors, Coal India, Kotak Bank, IndisInda Bank and Bajaj Finance were among top losers in an otherwise positive market.