Sensex jumps 1,147 points

Stock markets rose for the third straight day this week after last Friday’s sharp fall. The BSE Sensex gained 1,147 points or 2.28 per cent to close at 51,444 while the Nifty rose 326 points or 2.19 per cent at 15,245.

On Wednesday, open interest (OI) in Nifty futures stood at over 1.18 crore units (market lot: 75 units). Markets witnessed pressure when the Nifty OI had crossed the 1.5 crore mark last month, experts said. The Bank Nifty OI stood at around 22.95 lakh units (market lot: 40 units). In terms of the amount, the Nifty futures OI was around ₹28,000 crore while Bank Nifty was more than ₹8,000 crore. “ At the start of the week, we were sceptical of the up move and were reading it as a pull back as both Nifty as well as Bank Nifty had breached their swing lows. However, as the chart structure changes, we have to follow the markets and today we saw a change in the structure as the index breached the crucial resistances post the gap up. A continuation of this up move could lead the Nifty towards its previous highs of 15,430 whereas the ‘hourly 20 EMA’ around 15,000 would be seen as a crucial support,” said Ruchit Jain (Senior Analyst - Technical and Derivatives, Angel Broking.

Index heavyweights including Reliance Industries, HDFC, Infosys, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank pushed up Sensex by 800-points as these stocks rose between 3 per cent and 5 per cent each. Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, SBI, IndusInd Bank, and Dr Reddy's Labs were up between 2 per cent and 5 per cent among other gainers.