Sensex rebounds over 300 points, Nifty up; Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC rally in opening session

The Sensex rallied over 300 points in the opening session on Wednesday led by gains in Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and HDFC amid mixed cues from global markets.

After surging 308 points in highly volatile trade, the 30-share index was up 72.14 points, or 0.20 percent, at 35,707.09, and the NSE Nifty rose 22.20 points, or 0.21 percent, to 10,473.65, according to PTI.

Top gainers in the Sensex pack included Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank and PowerGrid. On the other hand, ITC, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and UltraTech Cement were among the laggards.

File image of stock broker. Reuters.

In the previous session on Monday, the BSE Sensex crashed over 1,941 points and the NSE Nifty tumbled 538 points, positing their biggest ever single-day drop in absolute terms.

On a net basis, foreign institutional investors (FPIs) sold equities worth Rs 6,595.56 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 4,974.80 crore on Monday, data available with stock exchanges showed.

The market remained closed on Tuesday on account of Holi. According to traders, domestic market rebounded from Monday's lows, but turned increasingly volatile as no respite from the rapid spread of coronavirus seems insight.

Global stocks too gave mixed signals with bourses in Shanghai and Hong Kong trading on a positive note, while those in Seoul and Tokyo dropping over 1 percent. The stock exchanges in the US ended sharply higher on Tuesday on hopes of US economic stimulus efforts as the coronavirus continued to spread rapidly.

Rupee rises 33 paise

The Indian rupee recovered 33 paise to 73.84 against US dollar in early trade on Wednesday amid positive opening in domestic equities and weakening of the American dollar in the overseas market. The rupee on 9 March, had fallen to a 17-month low of 74.17 against the US dollar amid mounting fears of a coronavirus-led economic slowdown. The forex market was closed on Tuesday on account of Holi.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 73.88, then gained further ground and touched a high of 73.84 against the US dollar, registering a rise of 33 paise over its previous close.

The domestic currency, however, could not hold on to the gains and was trading at 73.96 against the American unit at 1004 hrs.

On Monday, the rupee had settled at 74.17 against the greenback.

Meanwhile, investor sentiment remained fragile amid concerns over the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the global economy, forex traders said.

The global death toll from the new coronavirus crossed 4,000 as the outbreak has spread to over 100 countries with more than 110,000 cases of infection.

Domestic bourses opened on a positive note on Wednesday with benchmark indices Sensex trading 66.97 points higher at 35,701.92 and Nifty up by 3.85 points at 10,455.30.

Traders said the rise in crude oil prices helped in the recovery of the equity market and trading sentiment as oil prices had crashed on Monday.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 3.36 percent to $38.47 per barrel. Despite the rise, Brent crude prices are trading on a muted note, traders said.

Meanwhile, Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold equity shares worth Rs 6,595.56 crore on Monday, according to provisional exchange data.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against the basket of six currencies was trading 0.28 per cent lower at 96.14.

The 10-year government bond yield was at 6.13 percent in morning trade.

--With PTI inputs