Battery stocks experienced significant gains on Wednesday with Amara Raja Energy shares jumping nearly 19% during regular trading. According to reports from Upstox, the rally occurred despite weak market conditions with high volatility. Exide Industries also participated in the surge, with shares jumping over 8% on Wednesday. The positive sentiment spread across the sector as investors responded to aggressive expansion plans in the lithium-ion battery segment, while broader markets faced pressure from IT sector weakness.
As reported by Upstox, Amara Raja Energy shares traded 17.4% higher at ₹903 apiece on the NSE with high volumes. Over 1.5 crore shares were traded in Amara Raja Energy & Mobility during the session. Exide Industries shares jumped 6.4% higher at ₹354 apiece, after hitting an intraday high of ₹360 apiece on the NSE. Shares worth ₹521 crore were traded in Exide Industries on Wednesday afternoon till 3:00 pm with nearly 20% deliverable traded quantity.
The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their three-day winning streak on Wednesday as investor sentiment turned cautious after United States and Iran did not proceed with the peace talks and the Strait of Hormuz remained blocked, triggering a spike in crude oil prices. According to Upstox, the SENSEX fell as much as 831 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday low of 24,352, with the SENSEX ending 757 points lower at 78,516 and NIFTY50 dropping 198 points to close at 24,378. IT shares faced intense selling pressure with the IT stocks on NSE falling 3.9% to close at 30,496, after HCL Tech's management flagged a highly volatile demand environment shadowed by tariffs and softened discretionary spends, giving an FY27 growth guidance of 1-4%.
According to Moneycontrol reports, Amara Raja Energy & Mobility is going aggressive in lithium-ion battery manufacturing, particularly targeting the fast-growing telecom and data centre segments. Executive Director Vikram Gourineni told Moneycontrol that the company has crossed 1 gigawatt hour (GWh) capacity in lithium installations in the telecom sector, where the company was dominating with its lead-acid battery offerings. Gourineni expects aggressive telecom rollouts over the next two to three years, followed by replacement cycles and increased focus on stationary storage applications including UPS, utility-scale storage, and emerging use cases.
Despite IT sector weakness, some sectors showed resilience with FMCG shares facing buying interest for a second straight session, with NIFTY FMCG index rising 0.75%. NIFTY Metal, Realty, Oil & Gas and Consumer Durable indices also rose around 0.5%. Broader markets ended on a mixed note as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 0.2% while NIFTY Smallcap 100 index surged 1.13%. The overall market breath was positive as 1,923 shares ended higher while 1,357 closed lower on the NSE, indicating selective buying in certain segments despite broader market weakness.
