Indian equity benchmarks surged for second session in a row on Thursday as bullish sentiment towards equities continued after strong Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data was presented by the government.
The Sensex rose as much as 829 points and Nifty 50 index surpassed its important psychological level of 17,400 led by gains in HDFC, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Reliance Industries and Hindustan Unilever.The Sensex surged 776 points or 1.35 per cent to close at 58,461 and Nifty climbed 235 points or 1.37 per cent to settle at 17,401."If Nifty is able to sustain above 17,200, it can go up to 17,600 as momentum indicators like relative strength index (RSI) and moving averages convergence divergence are indicating positive momentum in the market," said Vijay Dhanotiya of CapitalVia Global Research.Buying was visible across the board as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty IT index's over 2 per cent gain.
Nifty Auto, Financial Services, FMCG, media, Metal, Pharma, Healthcare and Oil - Gas indices also rose around 1 per cent.Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1.21 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.66 per cent.Adani Ports was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4.53 per cent to close at Rs 740.
Power Grid, HDFC, Sun Pharma, Grasim, Bharat Petroleum, Tata Steel, Indian Oil, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Bajaj Finserv also rose between 2.4-3.8 per cent.On the flipside, Cipla, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were among the notable losers.The overall market breadth was positive as 2,132 shares ended higher while 1,057 closed lower on the BSE.