Sensex Jumps at Midday as Reliance Surges 7 Percent on Record Profit

Updated 10:55 UTC, November 2

Indian shares closed sharply higher on Monday, November 2, finalising the rally reported at midday in this article. The BSE Sensex settled at 75,692.78, up 1,233.25 points or 1.66 percent, while the Nifty 50 ended at 23,440.80, up 387.70 points or 1.68 percent, according to the Upstox market wrap and PTI reporting carried by Devdiscourse. The Hindu BusinessLine live blog recorded the same closing levels.

Reliance Industries closed as the top Nifty gainer, up 11.6 percent. MarketWatch reported the stock surged 11.64 percent to 1,299.00 rupees. Tata Steel rose 5.83 percent, JSW Steel rose 5.13 percent, and Shriram Finance and Coal India each rose 4.88 percent, according to Upstox. On the Nifty 50, 38 stocks closed higher and 12 declined. The Nifty Oil and Gas index rose 5.95 percent and the Nifty Metal index rose 3.21 percent.

Upstox said global crude oil prices were trading at about 108 dollars a barrel, down from highs of 117 dollars a barrel the previous week, which supported oil and gas shares. Devdiscourse, reporting PTI, said Brent crude fell more than 4 percent to 108.54 dollars a barrel on Monday, and that the rupee weakened 21 paise to 94.97 against the US dollar. Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments, said Indian equities started the week on a strong note, supported by better than expected second quarter earnings and improving domestic economic conditions, according to the PTI report.

Indian shares rose sharply by midday on Monday, November 2, with Reliance Industries at the centre of the move after the company reported a record quarterly profit. At 12:55 pm IST, the BSE Sensex traded at 75,198.92, up 739.39 points or 0.99 percent, while the Nifty 50 stood at 23,265, up 211.90 points or 0.92 percent, according to The Hindu BusinessLine midday market report. Both indices were at their highest levels since late September.

Reliance shares surged more than 7 percent in early trade and stayed strong into the afternoon session. By midday the stock had risen 7.36 percent to 1,250.60 rupees, against a previous close of 1,164.90 rupees, after touching an intraday high of 1,260 rupees. Trading in the stock reached 7,138.39 crore rupees in value, making it the heaviest traded stock by value on the Nifty 50.

Reliance leads the rally

SBI Securities said Reliance "emerged as the top contributor to Nifty's gains", a description quoted by The Hindu BusinessLine. The scale of the move put Reliance on track for its best single day gain since January 2024, based on reporting of BSE and NSE trade by 7Globe and Outlook Money.

Earlier in the session, the Sensex reached an intraday high of 75,557.06 and the Nifty 50 reached a high of 23,360.50. Outlook Money reported that the rally added about 6 lakh crore rupees to investor wealth at its peak, with the Sensex up nearly 1,000 points intraday. Those peak figures describe the high point of the session so far, not the midday levels and not a closing result.

Record profit behind the move

The share move followed Reliance results for the July to September quarter. The company reported a record consolidated profit after tax of 29,550 crore rupees, up 33.8 percent from 22,092 crore rupees a year earlier, with the oil to chemicals business the biggest driver. Profit attributable to owners rose 40.6 percent to 25,548 crore rupees, and EBITDA hit a record 62,409 crore rupees, up 23.9 percent.

Those earnings were first covered by Orbit Post on October 30 in a separate article. This report is about the market reaction on November 2, when investors bought the stock heavily through the morning and into midday after the record profit.

Oil and gas strength, IT drag

Support also came from outside the Reliance result. Outlook Money said falling crude oil prices and renewed foreign investor buying lifted sentiment. The Nifty Oil and Gas index rose more than 4 percent, showing strength beyond a single stock, though Reliance remained the main driver of the index gains at midday.

Not every large stock joined the rally. Infosys fell 2.43 percent to 1,156.20 rupees and was the steepest Nifty decliner at midday. Sun Pharmaceutical slipped 1.52 percent and ICICI Bank fell 1.19 percent. The Hindu BusinessLine said IT and pharma stocks dragged against the energy led rally.

The market session was still open at the time of the midday figures, so the levels in this report should be read as a snapshot at 12:55 pm IST rather than final closing values.