The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes extended gains in noon deals powered by a rally in information technology heavyweight Wipro which surged the most in 16 years after its posted better-than-expected June quarter earnings post market hours yesterday. Gains in banking, energy and metal shares also supported the strong gains in equity markets. The Sensex rose as much as 777 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 10.800.
As of 12:20 pm, the Sensex was up 552 points at 36,585 and Nifty was at 10,767, up 159 points.
Wipro was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock jumped nearly 18 per cent, its biggest single-day gain since May 2004, after the Bangalore-based IT reported a net profit of Rs 2,390.20 crore for the quarter ended June 30, beating analysts' expectations.
Infosys, the country's second-largest IT company, jumped as much as 8.27 per cent to Rs 848 after it announced strategic partnership with Vanguard as part of its ongoing strategy to enhance and evolve its full-service defined contribution (DC) business. This strategic partnership will deliver a technology-driven approach to plan administration and fundamentally reshape the corporate retirement plan experience for its sponsors and participants, Infosys said in a statement. The company is due to announce its earnings later in the day.
Reliance Industries climbed 3.22 per cent to hit fresh record high of Rs 1,978.50 ahead of its 43rd annual general meeting.
On the sectoral front, all sector gauges, barring the index of realty shares, were trading higher led by IT index's over 5 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Private Bank and metal shares also rose over a per cent each.
Mid- and small-cap shares were underperforming their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.6 per cent and Nifty Smalllcap 100 index rose 1 per cent.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,425 shares were advancing while 937 were declining on the BSE.
