The benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty maintained their firm undertone to notch up gains of nearly 2 per cent in the morning session on Wednesday.
Sensex was at 36,716, up 683 points or 1.90 per cent higher, while the Nifty was at 10,797, up 189 points or 1.79 per cent firmer
The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys (up 6.33 per cent), HCL Tech (4.80 per cent), Axis Bank (4.61 per cent), Tech Mahindra (4.55 per cent) and Bajaj Finance (2.9 per cent). The laggards were Bharti Airtel, down 1 per cent, and Nestle India.
Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE TECK index gained nearly 4 per cent, followed by banking (1.98 per cent), metals (1.74 per cent) and finance (1.57 per cent).
In the previous session, the BSE barometer ended 660.63 points or 1.80 per cent lower at 36,033.06; while the NSE Nifty closed 195.35 points or 1.81 per cent down at 10,607.35.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Tuesday, offloading equities worth Rs 1,565.62 crore, provisional exchange data showed.
According to traders, domestic benchmarks followed US equities which rallied on hopes of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Bourses in Tokyo and Seoul were trading with gains, while Shanghai and Hong Kong were in the red.
Stock exchanges on Wall Street ended on a positive note after US researchers reported that the first vaccine tested in the country revved up people’s immune systems just the way scientists had hoped.
The experimental vaccine, developed by US government’s top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci’s colleagues at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc, will start its most important step around July 27 - a 30,000-person study to prove if the shots really are strong enough to protect against the coronavirus.
The number of cases around the world linked to the disease has crossed 1.32 crore.
In India, the number of infections spiked to 9.36 lakh, according to the health ministry.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 0.44 per cent to $43.09 per barrel.