Sensex, Nifty end higher on Budget euphoria; investors richer by ₹9.68 lakh crore in three days

The domestic benchmarks continued their gaining streak for the third straight session on Wednesday as markets continued to remain euphoric a day after the Union Budget. The BSE Sensex gained 2,358 points in three days, making investors richer by ₹9.68 lakh crore as markets gave a big shout-out to the Budget 2022-23.

Cheering the Budget proposals, the benchmark indices gained more than 1% as no tinkering on taxes, including personal tax, and a massive push to the infrastructure sector boosted market sentiment. The market witnessed broad-based buying, led by banking, followed by media, healthcare, and IT.

Extending its rally for the third day, the BSE Sensex opened higher and gained as much as 756 points to hit an intraday high of 59,618. In a similar trend, the NSE Nifty rose 218 points to touch a day’s high of 17,794 levels.

Paring some of the early gains, the 30-share Sensex closed 696 points, or 1.18%, higher at 59,558, and the NSE Nifty added 203.15 points, 1.16%, to settle at 17,780.

In a similar fashion, the broader markets also ended higher with strong gains. The S&P BSE Midcap index rose 1.08%, and the S&P BSE Smallcap index jumped 1.54%.

The overall market breadth on the BSE was also positive, with 2,434 shares advancing out of total 3,729 traded stocks. Out of the total shares, 1,166 shares declined and 129 were unchanged.

All sectors close in green, banks lead

On the sectoral front, all the indices closed in positive terrain, while bank and consumer durables gained the most. The BSE Bankex index gained 2.08%, led by IndusInd Bank, AU Small Finance Bank, Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Axis Bank, which rose up to 5.5%.

The bank sector was followed by consumer durables, which ended 1.5% higher. The best performers in the consumer durables space were Blue Star, Dixon Technologies (India), Voltas, Bajaj Electricals and Havells India.

Top gainers and losers

Private sector lender IndusInd Bank emerged as the top performer on the BSE Sensex with a 5.6% gain. The surge in stock price can be attributed to ‘buy’ rating on the share by analysts at ICICI Direct and Yes Securities.

Some of the other top performers include Bajaj Finserv, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Finance, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, which gained in the range of 3-5%.

On the losing side, Tech Mahindra topped the chart by falling 1.6% on the BSE. Among others, Nestle India, UltraTech Cement, Maruti Suzuki India and Larsen & Toubro were notable losers, falling up to 1%.

Global stocks follow Wall Street rally

Shares in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as European markets, witnessed a surge in buying on Wednesday, following firm cues from Wall Street which finished higher overnight.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended 1.68% higher, and Australia’s ASX 200 surged 1.17%. Markets in China and most other regional markets were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.

In European markets, Germany’s DAX gained 0.43% in early deals, while France’s CAC index rose 0.4%. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index surged 0.8%, while Spain’s IBEX index added 0.3% in early deals.

On Tuesday, all three major U.S. indices closed higher in a volatile session as investors remained uncertain about the future outlook amid looming fear of rate hike by the Federal Reserve and geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The benchmark S&P 500 ended 0.69% higher, the blue-chip Dow Jones index added 0.78%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.75%.