Markets rebound on heavy short covering amid F&O expiry

Mumbai: Equity benchmarks mustered gains for the first time this week on Thursday as investors piled into the recently-battered metal, bank and IT stocks amid expiry of monthly derivatives contracts. Snapping its three-session losing streak, the 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 503.27 points or 0.94 per cent to settle at 54,252.53. On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty gained 144.35 points or 0.90 per cent to end at 16,170.15 points.

Tata Steel topped the Sensex gainers' chart, rallying 5.27 per cent after its recent rout, followed by SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Nestle India, HDFC, ICICI Bank, TCS and Wipro. In value terms, HDFC twins and ICICI Bank accounted for over half of the benchmark's gains. In contrast, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, Dr Reddy's and Bajaj Finance were the laggards, losing up to 1.16 per cent.

The market breadth was in favour of the bulls, with 24 of the 30 Sensex stocks closing in the green. "Markets witnessed healthy short covering towards the closing hours that helped key indices to reverse the 3-day losing streak. With the US FOMC minutes out of the way now, market is more or less getting prepared for the likely rate hikes, and hence we saw strong buying on the futures and options (F&O) expiry day. While we may see bouts of selling going ahead due to other negative factors like higher inflation, continuous FII selling, and Russia-Ukraine conflict, relief rallies will still be seen amidst volatility," said Shrikant Chouhan, head (equity research-retail), Kotak Securities Ltd.