Sensex rises over 200 points, Nifty reclaims 24,800 led by Infosys, ICICI Bank

The Indian equity benchmarks surged on Thursday ahead of weekly expiry of Nifty futures and option contracts led by gains in heavyweight shares such as Infosys, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and ITC. The Sensex rose as much as 330 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 24,867 amid stable cues from global markets.

As of 9:21 am, the Sensex was up 146 points at 81,057 and Nifty 50 index advanced 50 points to 24,820.

Most of the Asian markets were trading higher with Japan's Nikkei rising 1.11 per cent, Australia's S&P ASX 200 gaining 0.24 per cent, South Korea's KOSPI advancing 0.13 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gaining 0.67 per cent.

Overnight, US markets ended higher after minutes of the latest FOMC meet indicated strong case of rate cut in the upcoming US Federal Reserve meet in September.

The Dow Jones rose 0.14 per cent, tech heavy Nasdaq gained 0.57 per cent and S&P 500 advanced 0.42 per cent.

Back home, buying was visible across board as 10 of 13 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by Nifty Consumer Durables index's 0.8 per cent gain. FMCG, Oil & Gas, PSU Bank, Metal, IT and Bank indices also rose around 0.5 per cent each.

On the other hand, select healthcare, pharma and auto shares were facing selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading in line with their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices rose around 0.5 per cent each.

Grasim Industries was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 1.73 per cent to Rs 2,731. Tata Consumer Products, Infosys, Asian Paints, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India and Titan also rose between 0.5-1 per cent.

On the flipside, Power Grid, Shriram Finance, Dr Reddy's Labs, Mahindra & Mahindra, Divi's Labs, Cipla and HDFC Life were among the notable laggards.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,312 shares were advancing while 718 were declining on the BSE.