Nifty, Sensex Pare Early Gains While Asian Stocks Rebound: Midday Market Update

Indian equity benchmarks pared early gains of over 1% on Wednesday, following a two-day decline. 

This shift was influenced by a rebound in Asian stocks after the Bank of Japan's Deputy Governor, Shinichi Uchida, signaled a dovish stance amid historic financial market volatility in Japan, pledging to refrain from hiking interest rates during market instability.

As of 12:02 p.m., the NSE Nifty 50 was trading 233.20 points, or 0.97% higher at 24,2225.75, and the BSE Sensex was up 605.74 points, or 0.77% at 79,198.81. Intraday, Nifty rose as much as 1.44%, and Sensex gained 1.33% during the early trade. 

"The turn lower in equity benchmarks was anticipated after the initial recovery, but the extent of the pullback surprised us, allowing bears to regroup. The dominant trend remains downward, and a retest of 23,860 is likely," said Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services Ltd.

While recovery attempts are possible with objectives at 24,067, 24,154, and 24,262, these upswings could be dismissed as mere volatility unless 24,389 is reclaimed, he said.

Shares of HDFC Bank Ltd., Infosys Ltd., Oil and Natural Gas Corp., Larsen & Tourbo Ltd. and Reliance Industries Ltd. positively contributed to changes in the Nifty. 

While those of ICICI Bank Ltd., IndusInd Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd., Eicher Motors Ltd. and Titan Co. weighed the index. 

On NSE, all 12 sectors advanced. Nifty Oil and Gas lead gains while Nifty Bank contributed the least.

Broader markets outperformed the benchmark with the BSE Smallcap and BSE Midcap rising 1.82% and 1.72%, respectively, as of 11:56 a.m.

On BSE, all 20 sectors advanced. BSE Oil and Gas was up 3.48% and was the top performer, and the BSE Bankex was the least contributor with only 0.43% gains.

Market breadth was skewed in the favour of buyers. Around 2,778 stocks advanced, 958 stocks declined, and 130 stocks remained unchanged on BSE.