Closing Bell: Bulls take hold of Dalal Street, Nifty scales 16500

Domestic benchmark indices end on a bullish note on Thursday led by broader positive markets.

Domestic benchmark indices end on a bullish note on Thursday led by broader positive markets. The stock markets witnessed a strong recovery after a massive bloodbath as Russia-Ukraine tension softens a little. The state-election results also acted as a tailwind for investors’ appetite. The sectoral indices ended in positive where the Auto, FMCG, PSU Banks, and realty sectors added over 2 per cent each. Nifty Metals rebounded from early losses and ended in the green adding 2 per cent to the Nifty benchmark. The rupee has appreciated and is currently trading at 76.44 against the US dollar. The crude oil price has increased by 4 per cent almost and is trading at USD 116.65.  The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, went down by 5 per cent to 33.35 levels.

The Nifty 50 index was gained by 218 points and closed at 16,563.60 levels. Bank Nifty has also climbed by 582 points and ended the day at 34,398.05. The Sensex settled at 55,464.39 advanced 817 points. BSE MidCap index has scaled up today by 244 points and ended the day at 23,206.18 levels. Similarly, the BSE SmallCap has ascended by 314 points and stood at 26,898.29 at day end.  On the BSE Sensex, top stocks were Axis Bank, Induslnd Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, and Hindustan Unilever. On the other hand, the top losers were TCS, Tech Mahindra, and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. 

The total stocks traded today were 3460 out of which 2433 advanced and 929 stocks declined, 98 stocks that were unchanged. The number of stocks that were locked in an upper circuit are 531 and 115 stocks were locked in the lower circuit today. The numbers of stocks that have made a 52-week high are 94 and there were 19 stocks that made a 52-week low today.