Sensex gains 748.97 points, Nifty above 8,900, all sectoral indices advance

Indian benchmark indices opened in green on Thursday (April 9) with the Sensex advacning 748.97 points or 2.51% at 30642.93, and the Nifty zooming up 217.45 points or 2.49% at 8966.20. About 764 shares advanced, 82 shares declined, and 25 shares are unchanged.

All the sectoral indices traded in the green, while BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained over 2 percent each.

The benchmark indices traded higher in the pre-opening session with the Sensex gaining 423.54 points or 1.42% at 30317.50, and the Nifty advacning 236.65 points or 2.70% at 8,985.40.

On Wednesday, Indian stock markets closed on a lower side after witnessing volatility with the Sensex ending 173.25 points down or 0.58% at 29893.96, while the Nifty was down 43.45 points or 0.49% at 8748.75. Major gainers on the Nifty were Vedanta, Sun Pharma, Cipla, NTPC and Bharti Infratel, while the top laggards were Shree Cements, Titan Company, TCS, and Hindalco.

The Indian rupee also settled 70 paise lower at 76.34 (provisional) against the US dollar on Wednesday amid the rise in coronavirus cases in the country and weak domestic equities. 

Among stocks, GAIL jumped by 9 per cent to Rs 92.25 per share while pharma majors Cipla and Sun Pharma gained by 5.9 per cent and 5.3 per cent respectively. Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindustan Lever added gains of over 6 per cent. HDFC, HCL Technologies, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti too traded with a positive bias. However, ITC, Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Airtel were in the red.