Sensex Jumps More Than 1,300 Points as Nifty Crosses 25,400 After Diwali Break

Indian shares surged on Wednesday, November 11, in the first trading session after the Diwali Balipratipada holiday, with the Sensex climbing more than 1,300 points in early trade and the Nifty 50 crossing 25,400. By noon in Mumbai, the Sensex stood at 82,379.37, up 1,272.72 points or 1.57 percent, and the Nifty 50 was at 25,386, up 341.35 points or 1.36 percent, The Hindu BusinessLine reported in its live market coverage. Both indexes traded at their highest levels since February 27.

The opening set the tone. The Sensex opened at 82,248.68, up 1,142.03 points or 1.41 percent from its previous close of 81,106.65 on Monday, November 9. The Nifty 50 opened at 25,337.80, up 293.15 points or 1.17 percent from 25,044.65. At 9:53 a.m., the Sensex was trading at 82,386.84, up 1,280.19 points or 1.58 percent, and the Nifty 50 was at 25,388.05, up 343.40 points or 1.37 percent, Outlook Money reported. The intraday highs were 82,520.40 for the Sensex and 25,424.35 for the Nifty 50. The combined market value of BSE listed companies rose by about Rs 6 lakh crore in the first hour of trade as buying spread across sectors.

Foreign buying and strong earnings

Foreign institutional investors have bought heavily through November. V. K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, told ANI: "Nifty 50 has surged by 8.6% in just six trading days of this month. This surge was triggered mainly by the aggressive FII buying of Rs 53170 crores so far this month." He said the fundamental support came from quarterly results, adding that "the near 24% earnings growth in Nifty 50 in Q2 is a 12-quarter high." The Hindu BusinessLine put foreign inflows for the month at the same figure, Rs 53,170 crore, and said aviation, auto, insurance and telecom stocks led the morning rally.

Gainers and crude prices

InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of IndiGo, rose nearly 5 percent in morning trade. Mahindra and Mahindra rose 3.5 percent, State Bank of India rose 2.7 percent, Axis Bank rose 2.3 percent and HDFC Bank rose 2 percent, Upstox reported. Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel and Eternal also gained. Crude prices helped sentiment. Brent crude fell to a two month low of 89.16 dollars a barrel on Tuesday before steadying near 92 dollars, after United States officials played down the chance of more military action against Iran. Hopes of easing tensions in West Asia also supported the open, Upstox and Outlook Money reported.

Markets were closed on Tuesday, November 10, for Diwali Balipratipada, so Wednesday was the first chance for Indian investors to react to the holiday break news flow. All the figures in this report are intraday readings from Wednesday morning and noon in Mumbai, not closing prices. The session was still under way when this report was published.