The Indian stock market surged on Wednesday, with the Sensex and Nifty gaining as much as 0.9%, driven by improved investor sentiment after RBI Governor signalled that further rate hikes may be premature, alongside a rebound in South Korean equities and other supportive global cues.
Sensex jumped 682 points to 76,882 while Nifty 50 gained 167 points to 23,991, as seen at 11.15 am on Wednesday. This comes as India VIX, which measures volatility in the market, dropped nearly 3% to 13.58.
Tech Mahindra and ICICI Bank shares gained around 3% to lead gains on Sensex, while IndiGo, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Trent, Bajaj Finance and TCS shares jumped around 2% each. Shares of Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, Titan, Power Grid, Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel, meanwhile, declined nearly 1% each.
Broader markets, however, remained muted, with Nifty Smallcap 100 and Nifty Midcap 100 indices slipping into the red. Sectorally, Nifty IT and Nifty Private Bank jumped up to 1.5% to lead gains, while Nifty Metal and Nifty Consumer Durables traded with losses. Around 1,531 stocks advanced on NSE, while 1,543 declined and 99 remained unchanged.
Here are 6 key factors boosting market sentiment today:
1) RBI Governor douses rate-hike fears
Putting worries around RBI’s possible rate hikes to a rest, Governor Sanjay Malhotra told ET Now that such talks were “premature” at this stage of the policy cycle. He added that the central bank was watching for second round effects of higher oil prices on inflation in the broader economy before taking a call on rates. "We do not see signs of inflation generalizing yet," Malhotra said.
"If we wanted to prepare the market for rate hikes, we would have changed stance from neutral to restrictive," he added. The Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee kept interest rates unchanged at its meeting earlier this month, while maintaining the stance at "neutral".
Indian stock market crashed yesterday following a 10% plunge in South Korea’s Kospi amid concerns that valuations had become stretched following the market's strong rally. However, Kospi rebounded today, jumping around 3%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained around 0.4%, while Japan’s Nikkei and China’s Shanghai Composite slipped in the red.
3) India-US trade deal hopes
The United States and India are "very, very close" to concluding a historic bilateral trade deal that will open the 1.4 billion-strong Indian market to American goods on reciprocal and mutually beneficial terms, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bethany Poulos Morrison said.
Meanwhile, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal met US trade representative Jamieson Greer as both sides pushed to finalise an interim trade deal ahead of July 24, when US’ temporary 10% tariff on imports from trading partners is set to lapse.
4) Oil prices fall below $77/bbl
Oil prices continued to decline, hovering near four-month lows as signs emerged that more oil tankers stranded in the Gulf since the start of the Iran conflict are preparing to move through the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent crude futures declined nearly 1% to $76 per barrel while WTI Crude futures fell more than 1% to $72 per barrel.
