Stock market today: Indian equity benchmarks surged around 1.5 per cent on Friday driven by gains across sectors, with financial, IT, oil & gas, metal and FMCG shares being at the forefront of the rally. Dalal Street took positive cues from global markets, where investors drew optimism about less aggressive hikes in benchmark interest rates from a Fed official's remark that he favoured "slow and steady" increases.

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Friday's spike marked only a second rise in 11 back-to-back sessions. The Sensex climbed up 899.6 points to end at 59,809, having soared as much as 1,057.7 points during the session. The Nifty50 settled at 17,594.4, up 272.5 points from its previous close. The 50-scrip gauge leaped to as high as 17,644.8 in intraday trade. 

Investors grew wealthier by Rs 3.4 lakh crore in a day as the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 263.3 lakh crore on Friday, according to provisional exchange data. 

Editor's Take | Anil Singhvi says rally driven by buying, not short covering

"The quality of today's rally is that it is entirely backed by buying and not short covering, which is usually more temporary in nature. Buying-based rallies are more long lasting," said Anil Singhvi, Managing Editor of Zee Business.

Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports were the top gainers in the Nifty50 basket, rising 16.6 per cent and 9.8 per cent for the day respectively. However, Adani group investors still have a long distance to cover to recover heavy losses suffered in the past few weeks. 

SBI, Bharti Airtel, SBI Life, Tata Steel, ITC and Reliance were also among the top gainers in the 50-scrip pack, rising between 2.4 per cent and 5.1 per cent.

On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech and Cipla declined around 1-3 per cent — the worst hit among the seven laggards in the Nifty universe.

Among heavyweights, Reliance, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI and ITC were the biggest contributors to the rise in Sensex.

SBI shares registered their biggest single-day jump since Mar 2021 after Reuters reported citing sources that the state-run lender may look to cut its stake in Yes Bank after a lock-in period ends on March 13. 

 

Broader indices Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices closed 0.7-0.8 per cent higher.

Overall market breadth strongly favoured the bulls, with an advance-decline ratio of 8:5 as 2,184 stocks rose and 1,332 fell at the close on BSE. 

highlights of the March 3 session here. For all other news related to business, politics, tech, sports and auto, visit Zeebiz.com.