| Domestic equity benchmarks ended with strong gains on Wednesday, extending their rally for the third consecutive session, despite the ongoing Middle East conflict that kept investors cautious. The market opened in positive territory and extended its gains during the session, with the Nifty surging above the 23,800 level. However, the index witnessed mild profit booking in the latter half of the session and settled above the 23,750 mark. Investors now await the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy decision, due later today.
In the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex jumped 633.29 points or 0.83% to 76,704.13. The Nifty 50 index surged 196.65 points or 0.83% to 23,777.80. In three consecutive trading sessions, the Sensex and Nifty climbed 2.87% and 2.71% respectively.
The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index soared 1.80% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index rallied 2.05%. The market breadth was strong.
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, declined 5.39% to 18.72.
Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty Media index (up 3.35%), the Nifty IT index (up 2.78%) and the Nifty Realty index (up 2.75%) outperformed the Nifty 50 index.
Meanwhile, the Nifty Metal index (down 0.10%), Nifty FMCG index (down 0.05%) and the Nifty Pharma index (up 0.16%) the underperformed the Nifty 50 index.
Numbers to Track:
The yield on India's 10-year benchmark federal paper rose 0.18% to 6.729 compared with the previous session close of 6.717.
In the foreign exchange market, the rupee edged lower against the dollar. The partially convertible rupee was hovering at 92.6600 compared with its close of 92.4000 during the previous trading session.
MCX Gold futures for the 2 April 2026 settlement fell 0.39% to Rs 155,370.
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was up 0.06% to 99.38.
The United States 10-year bond yield declined 0.55% to 4.178.
In the commodities market, Brent crude for May 2026 settlement rose 15 cents or 0.15% to $103.57 a barrel.
Global Markets:
European markets advanced on Wednesday as investors are looking ahead to EU inflation data due later today. The data comes ahead of monetary policy decisions from the European Central Bank, Bank of England, Riksbank and Swiss National Bank scheduled for Thursday.
Asia markets ended higher as investors assess Japan trade data and await U.S. Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision.
Markets expect the Fed to keep interest rates steady between 3.5% and 3.75% on Wednesday stateside.
On the data front, Japanese exports increased by 4.2% year-on-year in February. Exports had risen 16.8% jump in the previous month.
Overnight in the U.S., the S&P 500 rose as Wall Street built on the momentum seen in the previous session amid developments in the Iran war.
The broad market index closed up 0.25% at 6,716.09, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.47% to finish at 22,479.53. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 46.85 points, or 0.1%, to end at 46,993.26.
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