Sensex surges 1,030 points, Nifty ends near 15,000 in extended trading session

Sensex and Nifty closed higher today after banking stocks were buoyed by government's move to lift the embargo on the grant of GOI business to private lenders. While Sensex rose 1,030 points to end at 50,781, Nifty zoomed 274.20 points to close at 14,982.

The gains in the equity market came after trading hours were extended following a technical glitch on NSE. Earlier, trading on NSE was halted from 11:40 am to 3:30 pm due to the technical glitch.

Following resumption of trading at 3:45 pm on NSE, benchmark indices rose as FM Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government has lifted the embargo on grant of government businesses to private banks.

That led to massive buying in banking stocks which lifted the benchmark indices. Bank Nifty rose  up to 1,451 points to 36,567 against previous close of 35,116 in afternoon trade.

Similarly, BSE bankex climbed up to 1,601 points to 41,097 against previous close of 39,496. Later, bank nifty ended 1,335 points higher at 36,452. BSE bankex gained 1,462 points to 40,959.

On Sensex, Axis Bank was the top gainer, surging around 5 per cent, followed by HDFC twins, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance and SBI. PowerGrid, Dr Reddy's, TCS and Asian Paints were among the top losers.

Why banking stocks are on fire during extended trading hours today

Trading on both BSE and NSE ended at 5 pm today due to a technical glitch on the latter. Minutes before the scheduled closure of trade at 3.30 pm, leading bourses BSE and NSE said their equity and derivatives markets will remain open till 5 pm.

"A late surge by bulls across financials post lifting of the embargo on the grant of GOI business to private banks took indices up 2 per cent when trade time was extended till 5.00 pm," said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities. Market breadth was positive with 1,806 stocks ending higher against 1,120 falling on BSE. 173 stocks were unchanged.

In the forex market, the rupee gained 11 paise to settle at 72.35 against the US dollar supported by positive domestic equities and weakness of the American currency in the overseas market.Sameet Chavan, Chief Analyst-Technical and Derivatives, Angel Broking said, "Due to today's technical glitch, the option buyers (especially Put option buyers) had to pay the price for this because we witnessed premiums falling drastically due to the loss of time. For call buyers (as well as Put writers), it may not have impacted much because once the market resumed trading for a short period, market had a sharp upsurge which could have definitely benefitted them. But for other counter party, prices just diminished rapidly. The coming session is to be considered a normal expiry day and today's glitch has nothing to do while creating fresh positions."