Sensex, Nifty Edge Higher Led By Gain In HDFC, HDFC Bank

The Indian equity benchmarks edged higher in trade on Wednesday led by gains in HDFC, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Asian Paints, Infosys and Axis Bank. The Sensex rose as much as 126 points and Nifty 50 index touched record high of 15,778. Meanwhile, a global equity benchmark and two key European stock indexes touched new highs on Tuesday, while the dollar rose in anticipation of faster inflation as volatility eased to lows last seen before the coronavirus pandemic.

As of 9:42 am, the Sensex was up 107 points at 52,383 and Nifty 50 index advanced 35 points to 15,775.

MSCI's all-country world index last stood at 716.64, after scaling an intraday high of 718.19 on Tuesday, led by gains in European stocks.

Back home, foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 1,423 crore while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 1,627 crore.

Buying was visible across the board as all the 11 sector gauges, barring the index of auto stocks, were trading higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's nearly 2 per cent gain. Nifty Media, Bank, Financial Services, Metal and Realty indices also rose between 0.5-1 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares were outperforming their lager peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.7 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.6 per cent.

Cipla was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 2 per cent to Rs 972. ONGC, State Bank of India, HDFC, Power Grid, SBI Life, Bharat Petroleum, Divi's Labs and UPL also rose between 0.8-1.4 per cent.

On the flipside, Shree Cements, Bajaj Auto, Britannia Industries, UltraTech Cement, Maruti Suzuki, Larsen & Toubro, Grasim Industries, Eicher Motors and Reliance Industries were among the laggards.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,907 shares were trading higher while 712 were declining on the BSE.