Sensex rebounds over 250 points; Nifty advances towards 14,600 mark

Auto stocks were worst hit mainly due to wider economic restrictions imposed in Maharashtra, which contributes over 20% of the automobiles production in the country.

New Delhi: On Thursday, equity benchmark Sensex rebounded 259.62 points or 0.53% to 48,803.68 while Nifty ended up 76.65 points or 0.53% higher at 14,581.45, thanks to the strong gains in IT and banking stocks. 

TCS, ONGC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), Axis Bank and HCL Tech performed the best on Sensex. Meanwhile, Infosys, IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Nestle India, Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement and ITC were among the index draggers. 

As far as sectoral performances are concerned, Nifty Pharma was up 1.4% while Nifty Auto fell over 1%. “Auto stocks were worst hit mainly due to wider economic restrictions imposed in Maharashtra, which contributes over 20% of automobiles production of the country,” said Binod Modi, Head - Strategy at Reliance Securities.

Modi said that Infosys witnessed heavy profit booking after missing the street's estimates in 4QFY21 earnings. “Domestic equities looked to be resilient amid high volatility. Benchmark indices recovered sharply from today’s low mainly led by a rebound in financials and pharma indices,” he added. 

Barring Infosys, strong buying was seen in other IT major stocks due to sustained growth prospects, he noted. Meanwhile, other Asian indices including bourses in Shanghai and Hong Kong, ended in the red zone. Seoul and Tokyo settled with gains. European stock exchanges were trading in the green zone.