Sensex rose up to 82,957, while Nifty 50 gained more than 200 points. The sharp rise led to an increase in the market capitalisation of all BSE-listed firms by more than Rs 3 lakh crore.
HCL Tech, Tata Steel, Infosys and others led gains on the Sensex, while Eternal, State Bank of India (SBI), Kotak Mahindra Bank, ITC and Asian Paints were the only losers, trading in the red with marginal losses.
All sectoral indices are currently in the green, with Nifty IT and Nifty Metal leading gains by rising more than 2%. Nifty Auto and Nifty Realty indices followed, rising more than 1% each.
Here are the five key factors pushing the markets higher up:
1) IT stocks rebound
The shares of IT companies have sharply jumped in trade today, accompanying their Wall Street peers a day after crash. The Nifty IT index is currently up more than 2% to 30,727. HCLTech led gains, jumping more than 3%, while Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) gained 2.5% each. Today’s rise comes after AI startup Anthropic signed multiple partnerships with SaaS companies, easing concerns about the possibility of artificial intelligence-led disruption in the sector. The Nifty IT index has today snapped a five-session losing streak.
AI is a genuine disruption, but it is also turning into the next growth cycle for the winners, said Ravi Singh, Chief Research Officer at Master Capital Services. “Q3 commentary across the street increasingly suggests AI is becoming embedded in deal conversations and cost-takeout/vendor consolidation programs, which supports pipeline resilience even if discretionary remains uneven,” he added.
2) Global markets rise
Positive global cues also supported markets. US stock markets ended yesterday’s session higher, as tech stocks rebounded after a sharp decline earlier. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained over 1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.76%. The S&P 500 index meanwhile gained 0.77%. Japan’s Nikkei rose nearly 3%, South Korea’s Kospi gained more than 2% and Hang Seng was up 0.63%.
3) Rupee rises
Rupee gained against the US dollar, rising 6 paise to $90.89 against the US dollar on Wednesday. This was supported by a weaker dollar and rise in Indian stock markets. However, forex traders advised caution amid the sharp rise in global crude oil prices and FII outflows. Crude oil prices are hovering near seven-month highs amid rising worries of a possible military conflict between US and Iran that would potentially disrupt supply. On the other hand, FII net sold equities worth Rs 102.53 crore earlier yesterday. However, domestic institutional investors remained net buyers, buying net equities worth Rs 3,161 crore on Tuesday.
4) No negative surprises from Trump’s speech
US President Donald Trump delivered his state of the Union address. While he reiterated claims like he ended eight wars including India-Pakistan conflict, he made no explosive announcements around tariffs. After US Supreme Court declared Trump’s tariffs illegal, the President claimed that most of the country’s trading partners want to continue to negotiate tariffs. “As time goes by, I believe the tariffs, paid by foreign countries, will, like in the past, substantially replace modern day system of income tax,” he added during his address.
Trump recently announced 10% tariff on imports to US after the SC ruling. This is lower than the previous tariff rates set by the US President on Indian imports, as well as the 18% rate agreed upon by the two countries as part of its trade framework.
5) Value buying
The sharp rise in Indian stock markets may have also been driven by value-buying after the strong decline seen yesterday. Indian stock markets crashed on Tuesday after two consecutive days of gains. Sensex fell nearly 1,069 points (1.28%) to close at 82,225.92, and Nifty 50 declined more than 288 points (1.12%) to end the session at 25,424.65. This was led by the sharp plunge in IT stocks, after AI startup Anthropic said its Claude Code tool could be used to modernise a legacy programming language which runs on IBM systems, retriggering worries about AI-led disruption in the sector.
Market analysts advised caution after yesterday’s fall. “Markets remain highly sensitive to geopolitical risks and sector-specific pressures, driving investors toward defensive, domestically focused segments,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited.