An afternoon rally led by BFSI, auto, and airline stocks shifted the tone of Indian markets to a comfortable recovery run on Wednesday afternoon. The BSE Sensex closed 1.22 per cent or 940.73 points higher to settle at 77,958.52.
The NSE Nifty 50 gained 298.15 points, closing 1.24 per cent higher at 24,330.95. The Nifty Auto index gained 2.41 per cent while the Nifty Bank index lifted by 2.63 per cent.
IndiGo, Trent, Asian Paints, SBI, Axis Bank, and HDFC Bank were the top five Sensex gainers, while Reliance, Powergrid and L&T were the biggest losers in the 30-pack Sensex.
On the NSE, Vodafone Idea closed 4.63 per cent higher at ₹11.30 a piece a day after the telecom giant announced the return of Kumar Mangalam Birla as Non-Executive Chairman.
IndiGo stock soared, closing 6.65 per cent higher, despite posting both month-on-month and year-on-year slump in domestic air traffic earlier this week. A major driver was the Union Cabinet announcing the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme 5.0 in response to the West Asia conflict. Civil aviation players, along with MSMEs, are expected to be the major beneficiaries of this latest move by the Centre.
The rupee also appreciated 56 paise to close at 94.62 to the dollar on a provisional basis.
For the equity markets, the morning also saw small gains after US President Donald Trump's claim of progress in negotiations with Iran led to a drop in crude oil prices.
With today's rally, the Sensex gained 5.19 per cent over the month and recovered its losses in the past seven days.
The overall positive sentiment on robust earnings, the appreciation of banking stocks, the slump in crude prices, and the introduction of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, all came together to lift the markets in the second half of the day.