Closing Bell: Indian market extends gain, Nifty tops 18200

Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty extended the winning run for the fourth session in a row on Wednesday. Financial, IT and oil & gas shares were the top contributors to push the headline indices.

For the first time since October 27, 2021, the Nifty index managed to close above 18,200 led by buying in auto, realty, metal and power stocks.

At the closing bell on January 12, the Sensex was up 533.15 points or 0.88% at 61,150.04, and the Nifty was up 156.50 points or 0.87% at 18,212.30. On the market breadth, around 1694 shares have advanced, 1554 shares declined, and 54 shares are unchanged.

Among the top Nifty gainers on a positive trading day were M&M, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, IndusInd Bank and ONGC were the top Nifty gainers. Top losers included Titan Company, TCS, Shree Cements, Britannia Industries and Cipla.

On a sectoral basis, Metal, Power, Auto, Oil & Gas and Realty index gained up 1-2%, while IT and Pharma indices ended flat. In the broader market, the BSE midcap and smallcap indices were up 0.7-1%.

Buzzing stock of the day was Vodafone Idea which staged a comeback as the stock surged 9.32% to settle at Rs 12.90. The stock had crashed around 21% on Tuesday after the company decided to convert interest on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and spectrum dues into government equity. Also among the trending stock was Mahindra & Mahindra, the top Nifty gainer which zoomed 4.53% to Rs 879.50.

IT heavyweights TCS, Wipro and Infosys will kick start the third-quarter (Q3) earnings season today. Investor sentiment got a boost as the world bank increased the growth forecast for India to 8.7% for FY23 from its earlier prediction of 7.5%.