The bulls staged a comeback on D-Street and benchmark indices closed nearly one per cent higher on Wednesday amid gains in Asian stocks after the United States delayed tariffs on some Chinese imports. When the closing bell rang, the BSE S&P Sensex was up 353 points at 37,312 while the Nifty 50 was higher by 104 points to 11,029. At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), all sectoral indices were in the green except for Nifty pharma which dipped by 1.4 per cent.
Nifty media was up by 2.76 per cent, metals by 2.34 per cent, PSU banks by 1.52 per cent and private banks by 1.07 per cent. Among stocks, UPL was the top gainer with a gain of 4.7 per cent at Rs 526.90 per share while Bajaj Finserv closed 4.5 per cent higher at Rs 7,413. Zee Entertainment also gained 4.5 per cent at Rs 342.20 per share while Tata Steel and Vedanta were up by 4.1 per cent each. The other prominent gainers were Yes Bank, Grasim, JSW Steel, Hindalco, and Tech Mahindra.
But pharma stocks were on slippery ground with Sun Pharma plunging by 5.2 per cent and Dr Reddy by 1.7 per cent. Indiabulls Housing Finance lost nearly 5 per cent while Wipro slipped by 2.8 per cent. The other prominent losers were Coal India, Britannia, Kotak Mahindra, ONGC, Tata Motors, and Adani Ports. Asian indices were in the green following a rally overnight in the US markets where US President Donald Trump delayed the September 1 deadline for 10 per cent tariffs on some Chinese imports.
Delaying duties on a range of consumer goods to December 15 sent Wall Street stocks soaring a day earlier. The trade conflict has disrupted global supply chains and slowed economic growth, dampening sentiment across markets. The surge in US stocks lifted MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan by 0.9 per cent. The Shanghai Composite Index advanced by 0.4 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose by 0.08 per cent. South Korea's KOSPI also advanced by 0.65 per cent and Japan's Nikkei rose by 0.9 per cent.
