SGX Nifty Hints At Opening Losses; Dish TV, Maruti Suzuki, RITES,

India’s stock benchmarks advanced, aided by gains in power, oil and gas and information technology stocks, despite concerns over omicron covid-19 strain and possibility of faster tapering of stimulus.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.8% to 58,143.55. The NSE Nifty 50 advanced by similar magnitude to 17,304.30. Both the indices rose over 0.9% in intraday trade. Housing Development Finance Corp. contributed the most to the index gain and had the largest move, increasing 3.6%. In midday trading, 39 of 50 shares rose, while 11 fell.

The S&P BSE MidCap index underperformed its larger peers, adding 0.3% while S&P BSE SmallCap index almost mirrored Sensex and Nifty, gaining over 0.6%. Sixteen of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by BSE Ltd. advanced, with S&P BSE Oil & Gas, S&P BSE Utilities and S&P Information Technology index gaining over 1.25%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of bulls. About 2,004 stocks advanced, 1,131 declined and 153 remained unchanged.