Sensex snaps 6-day fall, spurts 646 points As Banks, financials sparkle

MUMBAI: Benchmark indices made an emphatic comeback on Wednesday after a six-session losing streak as investors piled into recently beaten down banking and financial stocks ahead of the earnings season.

The BSE Sensex surged 645.97 points or 1.72 per cent to end at 38,177.95, while the broader NSE Nifty zoomed 186.90 points or 1.68 per cent to 11,313.30.

After a cautious start, the key indices gained momentum in afternoon trade, led by banking, financial and telecom counters.

Sentiment got a further boost after the Cabinet hiked the dearness allowance (DA) for central government employees, which is expected to prop up festive demand, analysts said.

On the Sensex chart, Indusind Bank was the biggest gainer, spurting 5.45 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, SBI, M&M, Kotak Bank, Tata Steel and HDFC Bank.

On the other hand, Yes Bank was the top loser with 5.26 per cent decline. Other laggards were Hero Motocorp, HCL Tech, ITC, TCS, Infosys, ONGC and Bajaj Auto, falling up to 2.65 to per cent.

Sectorally, BSE Telecom emerged as the biggest gainer with a jump of 4.92 per cent, followed by banking (3.67 per cent), finance (2.84 per cent), metal (2.12 per cent), realty

(1.99 per cent), basic materials (1.95 per cent) and energy (0.98 per cent).

However, IT, consumer durables and teck lost up to 0.92 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap index shot up 1.38

per cent, while the smallcap gauge gained 0.66 per cent.

The rupee was trading 3 paise lower at 70.98 against the US dollar (intra-day).

Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 1.08 per cent to $58.77 per barrel.