The domestic equity benchmarks extended gains and hit a fresh intraday high in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 22,400 level. Barring the Nifty Media index, all the other sectoral indices on the NSE were in green. Trading could be volatile due to the March F&O series expiry today.

At 13:27 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex was surged 900.87 points or 1.23% to 73,883.42. The Nifty 50 index gained 300 points or 1.36% to 22,423.65.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.91% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.66%.

The market breadth was strong. On the BSE, 2,190 shares rose and 1,530 shares fell. A total of 117 shares were unchanged.

Gainers & Losers:

Bajaj Finserv (up 4.26%), Bajaj Finance (up 3.36%), Grasim Industries (up 3.48%) Hero MotoCorp (up 3.07%) and Cipla (up 2.88%) major Nifty gainers.

Shriram Finance (down 0.70%) and Axis Bank (down 0.19%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Biocon rallied 3.51% after the company announced that it has received approval from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), U.K., for its complex formulation Liraglutide.

Larsen and Toubro (L&T) added 2.29% after the EPC major announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, L&T GeoStructure has secured ‘significant’ multiple orders from across India.

Zydus Lifesciences added 1.90% after the company said that US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) conducted an inspection at the SEZ Onco Injectable manufacturing plant at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

JSW Energy added 2.98% after the company's board will meet on Tuesday, 2 April 2024 to consider raising funds through various modes.

Adani Power gained 3.09% the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Mahan Energen (MEL) has entered into a significant 20 year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Reliance Industries (RIL) under the electricity rules, 2005.

Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) added 2.33% after the company has received letter of award (LoA) from Adani Power for setting up the 2x800 MW Raigarh Phase-II Thermal Power Plant at Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.

Global Markets:

European stocks advanced while most of the Asian stocks declined on Thursday as sentiment remained strained ahead of key U.S. inflation data and addresses by Federal Reserve officials.

Wall Street indexes rose sharply on Wednesday, rebounding after three days of losses as a drop in bond yields help spur strong gains in utility stocks. S&P 500 closed at record high.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller said that there is no hurry to cut interest rate right now. Current inflation reading suggests rates can stay at current level for longer to bring down the inflation sustainably to 2% target rate, Waller reportedly said at Economic Club in New York.

Markets are now awaiting more cues on inflation from PCE price index data- which is the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge. The data is due on Friday, when markets will be closed, but is largely expected to factor into the outlook for U.S. interest rates. Along with the PCE data, addresses from Fed Chair Jerome Powell is also due on Friday.