Stock market update: Nifty, Sensex trade firm; realty, pharma, oil & gas top gainers

After opening higher, domestic equity market was trading firm in the afternoon trade on Wednesday. Headline indices Nifty and the Sensex were hovering around their opening values as Nifty remained above 17,400 and the 30-share Sensex was trading with over 250 points gain as the index breached 58,400.  

The trend was also visible on SGX Nifty as the Futures index traded 83.50 points or 0.48% higher on the Singaporean exchange around 1.50 pm on Wednesday. 

See Zee Business Live TV Streaming Below:

Realty, consumer durables, oil & gas, pharma and financial shares were powering the market, while midcap and small cap indices gained 0.75% and 1.60% respectively. Bank Nifty was trading near 38,300 with over 100 points gain. 

"Market investors remained cautious after the previous session's surge, keeping an eye on the Ukraine situation, as Indian indices bounced back after a drop in the market," said Gaurav Garg, Head of Research, Capitalvia Global Research Ltd. 

Traders were concerned after official statistics revealed that during the first eight months of the current fiscal year, exports from special economic zones (SEZs) expanded at a slower rate than overall outbound shipments from the country," he said.  

Divis Laboratories, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Life, Adani Ports, IOC, HDFC Ltd, Bharti Artel, Kotak Bank and IDFC Bank were among top gainers. Eicher Motors, Ultratech Cement, NTPC, Hindalco, State Bank, ICICI Bank, Power Grid and Tata Steel were among top drags.