By The Sensex gained 657.85 points, or 0.85 per cent, to open at 77,423.77 on Wednesday, while the Nifty 50 rose 191.3 points to 24,176.65, as IT stocks led the market higher.
Infosys was the standout gainer, rising 3.89 per cent, while L&T, TCS, Hindustan Unilever and Tech Mahindra also contributed to the rally in early deals.
The Nifty IT index advanced as much as 2.51 per cent and the Nifty FMCG index rose 1.52 per cent, even as several Asian markets traded lower.
Power Grid led the decliners with a 0.67 per cent fall, while InterGlobe Aviation, Asian Paints, Maruti and Titan also slipped in early trade.
Advancing stocks outnumbered decliners by a wide margin on the BSE, with 1,837 gainers against 550 losers and 103 stocks unchanged.
The upmove came as crude oil prices rebounded after a roughly 14 per cent decline over three sessions tied to escalating tensions between the US and Iran.
Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth ₹755.33 crore on July 28, while domestic institutional investors purchased ₹1,664.16 crore worth of equities the same day.
Investors remained watchful of the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision due later in the day, a factor tempering enthusiasm even as the market opened higher.
The gains followed Tuesday’s flat close, when the Sensex ended at 76,765.92 and the Nifty settled at 23,985.35 amid a fragile US-Iran ceasefire.
India’s volatility index, the India VIX, had slipped to 12.56 in the previous session on July 28, down 0.79 per cent, as a firmer rupee and easing US-Iran tensions helped calm investor nerves.
Sustained buying by domestic institutional investors in recent sessions has also been credited with cushioning Indian markets against bouts of volatility driven by global cues.
Market watchers said the rebound in crude oil, after three straight sessions of sharp declines, had eased some of the concerns that had weighed on Indian equities earlier in the week amid the ongoing US-Iran tensions.
(Image: “BSE building at Dalal Street” by BSEINDIA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
