Sensex rises over 250 points, Nifty tops 21,510; Nerolac Paints & Nuvoco Vistas jump up to 6%

Indian equity benchmarks started on a positive note in Wednesday's trade, led by gains across all sectors. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack was up 287 points or 0.40 per cent to trade at 71,624, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 88 points or 0.41 per cent up to trade at 21,529. Mid- and small-cap shares were up as well as Nifty Midcap 100 climbed 0.52 per cent and small-cap gained 0.57 per cent. India VIX, fear index, rose 0.76 per cent to 14.79-level.

Asian markets were mostly trading higher today. Overnight, US stocks extended their rally on expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates as soon as March.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Indian shares on a net basis during the previous session, offloading Rs 95.20 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 167.04 crore.

All the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE -- were trading in the green today. Sub-indexes Nifty IT, Nifty Metal and Nifty Oil & Gas were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 0.79 per cent, 0.57 per cent and 0.56 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, UltraTech Cement was the top gainer in the Nifty pack as the stock jumped 2.89 per cent to trade at Rs 10,308. Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, L&T and LTIMindtree gained up to 1.80 per cent.

In contrast, Britannia, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, NTPC and Apollo Hospitals were among the top laggards.

The overall market breadth was strong as 1,619 shares were advancing while 347 were declining on BSE.

"Investors should give priority to high quality bluechips which are doing well and have good earnings visibility. A correction in the broader market is inevitable," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

On the 30-share BSE index, frontline stocks such as L&T, Infosys, UltraTech, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Tata motors and State Bank of India (SBI) were among the top gainers.

Also, shares of Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd, Nuvoco Vistas Corporation Ltd, 3M India and Adani Energy Solutions Ltd, Supreme Industries, Amber Enterprises India, NLC India and Adani Green Energy surged up to 6.36 per cent. On the flipside, Astrazeneca Pharma India, The Phoenix Mills, Varun Beverages, Eureka Forbes, Caplin Point Labs and Castrol India slipped up to 1.90 per cent.

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