F&O expiry: Sensex soars 997 points on Covid-19 drug hopes; auto, IT stocks gain
Indian equity market soared on Thursday, the last day of the futures & options (F&O) contracts of April series, as encouraging early results from a Covid-19 treatment trial boosted investor sentiment. Buying was witnessed across the board with stocks such as Tata Motors, Vedanta, and Hindalco leading the charge.
The S&P BSE Sensex rallied an impressive 997 points or 3 per cent to 33,718 levels. Of 30 constituents, 26 ended in the green and rest 4 in the red. ONGC (up over 13 per cent) emerged as the biggest gainer on the index, followed by HCL Tech (up 11 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (up 9 per cent), and NTPC (up 6 per cent).
On the contrary, Sun Pharma (down nearly 3 per cent) ended as the top loser. HUL, too, ended over 1.6 per cent lower at Rs 2,195.70 ahead of its March quarter results due later in the day.
Reliance Industries (RIL) stock ended nearly 3 per cent higher at Rs 1,467.05 apiece on the BSE. The company is slated to announce March quarter results and consider rights issue later in the day. Further, it has announced that it will reduce the salaries of some of its employees in the hydrocarbon division by 10 per cent in view of the “adverse impact” of the coronavirus pandemic on fuel demand.
NSE’s headline index Nifty surged 307 points or over 3 per cent to settle at 9,860.
On a weekly basis, Sensex zoomed 7.6 per cent and Nifty jumped 7.7 per cent.
In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index rallied 1.46 per cent to 12,013 levels and the S&P BSE SmallCap index gained over 1 per cent to 11,102-mark.
On the sectoral front, metal stocks advanced the most with the Nifty Metal index surging 8 per cent to 1,859.90 levels. The Nifty Auto index was second on the list – up 6.45 per cent to 5,901 levels.
Markets were closed on Friday on account of Maharashtra Day.