Sensex Gains 345 pts, Nifty Settles at 16,000; HUL, Titan Up 3%

Stock Market Today: Benchmark indices moved sharply higher in the fag-end of the session, closing in the positive zone for the first time this week. At close, the Sensex was up 344.63 points or 0.65% at 53,760.78, and the Nifty was up 110.50 points or 0.69% at 16,049.20.

Tata Consumer Products, Titan, Eicher Motors, HUL, Tata Motors, Maruti, M&M, Nestle India, HDFC, L&T, and BPCL topped the charts, rising over 2 per cent each. Metal and IT stocks, including Tata Steel, HCL Tech, Wipro, and JSW Steel continued to lag, down up to 2.6 per cent.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap index added 0.85 per cent, driven by IDBI Bank, TVS Motors, BEL, Cummins India, and Cholamandalam Finance. The BSE SmallCap index, too, gained 0.5 per cent.

Sectorally, the Nifty Auto index was the biggest gainer, up 2 per cent. The Nifty Metal, on the contrary, eased 0.8 per cent.

Among stocks, Angel One fell over 1 per cent on reporting an 11 per cent decline in its Q1FY23 profit.

Syngene International gained over 2 per cent after it signed a 10-year pact to manufacture drug substance Liberla – a monoclonal antibody used to treat osteoarthritis in dogs, with US-based animal health company Zoetis.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: “Volatility has re-emerged and investors have turned their focus on upcoming Fed policy in the backdrop of heightened US inflation. Fall in crude prices and reduction in FII selling added optimism to the domestic market while gloomy IT results, depreciating rupee and fear of global recession are restricting sizeable up move. In addition to the Fed policy, the domestic market’s near-term momentum will be influenced by ongoing quarterly earnings”

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