Sensex jumps over 300 points, Nifty50 tests 18,050; HDFC Bank, Wipro rise after Q3 results

Indian equity markets Sensex and Nifty50 held on to initial gains on Monday amid largely positive moves across global markets. Buying interest in financial and IT shares aided the rise in both headline indices though selling pressure in auto and metal counters limited the upside. Analysts awaited more of financial results from India Inc for cues after HDFC Bank, Wipro and DMart reported their quarterly numbers last weekend.  

Both main indices rose as much as 0.5 per cent in the first few minutes of trade. The Sensex gained 325.6 points or 0.5 per cent to touch 60,586.8 at the strongest level of the day so far, and the Nifty50 climbed to as high as 18,049.7, up 93.1 points from its previous close. The 30-scrip index started the day at 60,550.5 and the Nifty at 17,956.6.

At 9:45 am, Wipro, the Bajaj twins, HCL TEch, UltraTech, HDFC Life, TCS and Infosys -- rising between 0.7 per cent and 1.3 per cent -- were the top gainers in the Nifty50 basket. 

On the other hand, JSW Steel, BPCL, Adani Enterprises, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel and Hindalco -- declining between 0.7 per cent and 1.8 per cent -- were the worst hit among the 27 laggards in the 50-scrip pack.

HDFC Bank, Infosys and Bajaj Finance were the biggest movers for both main gauges, contributing about 70 points to the rise in Sensex.

Overall market breadth favoured the bulls, with an advance-decline ratio of 2:1 as 1,733 stocks rose and 850 fell on BSE. 

"A major trend in the market in 2022 was the tug of war between FIIs and DIIs, wherein massive selling by FIIs was absorbed by DII buying. 2023 has begun on a similar note... As long as the fundamentals of the economy and corporate earnings are good, FII selling is unlikely to impact the market significantly," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Global markets

Equities in other Asian markets started the day largely in the green, amid caution among investors ahead of a key Bank of Japan meeting this week where the central bank could defend its super-sized stimulus policy. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.8 per cent at the last count. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down one per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.8 per cent and China's Shanghai Composite up 1.1 per cent.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.2 per cent. On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent to clock its highest close in a month. The Dow Jones rose 0.3 per cent and the tech stocks-heavy Nasdaq Composite 0.7 per cent. 

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