Equity indices on swing upward, Nifty IT jumps 9 pc

After a volatile start, equity benchmark indices jumped by over 5 per cent during the afternoon on Friday as policymakers globally took further actions to minimise the human and economic impact of coronavirus pandemic.

At 1 pm, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 1,591 points or 5.62 per cent to 29,879 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 452 points or 5.46 per cent to 8,715.

Except for Nifty realty, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty IT up by 9.5 per cent, FMCG by 6.4 per cent, pharma by 5 per cent and metal by 4.3 per cent.

Among stocks, Tata Consultancy Services ticked up by 11.5 per cent to Rs 1,825 per share while Wipro witnessed a spurt of 11.3 per cent and HCL Technologies rose by 10.4 per cent. Tech Mahindra and Infosys too moved up by 9.3 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.

The other prominent winners were ONGC, GAIL, Bharti Infratel and Bajaj Finance.

But private banks suffered losses with HDFC Bank down by 2.3 per cent and IndusInd Bank by 1.7 per cent. Adani Ports and Mahindra & Mahindra too edged lower by thin margins.

The COVID-19 infection cases have risen drastically outside China, hurting major economies and disrupting supply chains. But many countries have poured in massive amounts of stimulus into their economies while central banks have flooded markets with cheap dollars to ease funding strains.