Sensex halts 3-day decline, rebounds over 500 points amid F&O expiry

Equity benchmarks mustered gains for the first time this week on Thursday as investors piled into the recently-battered metal, bank and IT stocks amid expiry of monthly derivative contracts. Snapping its three-session losing streak, the 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 503.27 points or 0.94 per cent to settle at 54,252.53.

On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty gained 144.35 points or 0.90 per cent to end at 16,170.15.

Tata Steel topped the Sensex gainers' chart, rallying 5.27 per cent after its recent rout, followed by SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Nestle India, HDFC, ICICI Bank, TCS and Wipro.

In value terms, HDFC twins and ICICI Bank accounted for over half of the benchmark’s gains.

In contrast, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, Dr Reddy's and Bajaj Finance were the laggards, losing up to 1.16 per cent. The market breadth was in favour of the bulls, with 24 of the 30 Sensex stocks closing in the green.

“While we may see bouts of selling going ahead due to other negative factors like higher inflation, continuous FII selling, and Russia-Ukraine conflict, relief rallies will still be seen amidst volatility,” said Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities. Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, market can rebound for the short to medium-term.