The equity markets on Wednesday opened on a positive note due to the bullish trend being witnessed in the Asian Indices. The BSE Sensex surged around 400 points to touch 76,900 during early hours while the NSE Nifty50 rose by close to 100 points to be at 23,273.55.

As the session progressed, the indices pared their gains slightly but the indices continued to trade higher. At around 11:14 AM the sensex increased by 340 points at 76,838.82 and Nifty managed to cross 23,250 and gained 75 points for the session.

On theersus, PowerGrid, NTPC, Zomato, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Maruti topped the charts with their gained. Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Nestle, M&M, Axis Bank constituted the laggards.

In the broader markets as well, the indices traded entirely in green with the Nifty Midcap Select index being the principal contributor to the result moving up by 1.29 per cent in that session.

On the other hand, Nifty Pharma and Healthcare Index dropped by a fraction of over 1 per cent. On the green side however, Nifty Midsmall Financial Services index was impressive rallying to the tune of 1.90 percent.

International Markets

The stock exchanges in Asia remained in the green with Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo increasing, while Shanghai traded lower during that session. Global oil index Brent Crude rose by 0.14% to $80.03 per barrel. Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded Indian stocks worth Rs 8,132.26 crore on Tuesday, according to data from depositories.

Macro Indicators

Retail Inflation fell to 5.22%, a 4 month low in December on account of a softening in food prices. Indian rupee traded lower by 2 paise at 86.55 index against the dollar as it was constrained by the rising crude oil prices and heavy selling by foreign investors after the Indian equity market opened on Wednesday. During last Tuesday’s session, the Indian currency had further declined setting a new lowest figure before the Tuesday trading ended at an exchange rate of 86.53 maintaining a recover price of 17 paise against the dollar.