Domestic equity markets showed gains on Wednesday morning, following strong global cues, despite ongoing worries about a deficient monsoon affecting market sentiment. The Sensex surged by over 200 points, reaching an intraday high of 76,697.37, while the Nifty also climbed by 70 points to 23,934.90.
Various sectors witnessed positive momentum, with media, auto, consumer durables, FMCG, IT, realty, and pharma stocks experiencing buying interest. Notably, the Nifty Media index saw a gain of over 1%, along with Nifty Auto and Nifty Consumer Durables, both registering increases of more than 1%.
On the flip side, Nifty Metal emerged as the top loser, declining by 0.61%, while Nifty Chemicals and Nifty MidSmall IT & Telecom also traded in the negative territory. Among the Nifty constituents, stocks like Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Hindalco Industries, HDFC Life, and others were among the major losers.
Market analysts highlighted that while global factors were bolstering the equity markets, concerns over a weak monsoon persisted as a significant domestic worry. They cautioned that a prolonged deficiency in rainfall could impact rural demand, fuel inflation, and prompt investors to shift focus towards defensive sectors like healthcare, pharmaceuticals, power, and select defence stocks.
Furthermore, crude oil prices saw an uptick, with Brent crude increasing by 0.72% to $73.48 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rising by 1% to $70.19 a barrel. In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei rose by 0.8%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and South Korea’s KOSPI witnessed declines of 0.64% and nearly 1%, respectively. The previous day in the US, Wall Street closed higher, with the S&P 500 up by 0.79% and the Nasdaq climbing 1.52%.
