Indian equity benchmarks delivered strong gains on Wednesday, April 29, with the BSE Sensex rallying 609.45 points or 0.79% to close at 77,496.36 and the NSE Nifty gaining 181.95 points or 0.76% to end at 24,177.65. According to The Hindu, the market surge was driven by bargain hunting in FMCG, auto and telecom stocks amid earnings optimism and a rally in Asian markets. The session began on a volatile note but gained momentum throughout the day, with the Sensex surging as much as 1,095.6 points or 1.42% to 77,982.51 during intraday trading. Signs of potential de-escalation in geopolitical tensions also helped equity markets, as reported by The Hindu. The volatility gauge India VIX ended at 17.44, down by 3.37% from the last closing, indicating reduced market uncertainty. Market experts suggest that Wednesday's performance has set the stage for a potential 'pullback rally' in the final session of the month, with the stock markets remaining closed on Friday, May 1, for Maharashtra Day.
As Q4 FY26 earnings begin to trickle in, early trends point to headline profit resilience, largely driven by financials, particularly banks. According to Mint, a Mint analysis of 220 early results shows total income rose 3.4% year-on-year, a sharp slowdown from 12% in the December quarter. However, even as core operations (net sales) rose nearly 9% y-o-y to a seven-quarter high, overall topline was weighed down by a 65% fall in non-core (‘other’) income, driven by treasury losses as bond yields hardened amid the West Asia conflict in March. Aggregate net profit for the 220 companies rose 10% y-o-y, but gains were largely driven by banks, masking pressure on non-financial companies amid rising costs. A 50% spike in crude oil prices in March drove raw material and service costs higher, leading to a 13% year-on-year and 20% sequential surge in overall expenses.
Several stocks witnessed heavier than usual trading volumes during the session. Tenneco Clean Air shares surged as much as 13.75% to hit an intraday high of ₹644 amid spike in trading activity. Trading volume on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) jumped by 20.5 times to 90.84 lakh shares compared with an average trading volume of 4.43 lakh shares. On the BSE, 7.13 lakh shares changed hands compared with an average of 47,000 shares traded daily in the past two weeks. Among the most actively traded stocks by volume during the session were Vodafone Idea, Eternal, JP Power and Bandhan Bank. According to The Economic Times, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), HDFC Life Insurance, Vedanta, Reliance Industries (RIL), Welspun Corp, Eternal and Bandhan Bank were among the most active stocks in terms of turnover, with GRSE alone accounting for ₹409 crore in turnover.
Star Health and Allied Insurance Company shares surged as much as 13% to hit an intraday high of ₹586.25 on the NSE after the company announced exceptional financial results. According to reports from Upstox, the private sector life insurer's net profit surge multi-fold to ₹111 crore in the fourth quarter of financial year 2025-26, compared to ₹50 lakh during the same quarter of the previous year. During the reporting quarter, total income increased to ₹4,545 crore from ₹3,989 crore in the same period a year ago. Trading volume jumped by 18 times to 60.4 lakh shares compared with an average trading volume of 3.27 lakh shares.
Sectoral performance was broadly positive with all sectoral indices closing in green except for PSU Bank, which declined 0.55% and was dragged down by Union Bank and Indian Bank. According to The Hindu, Nifty FMCG emerged as the top performer, gaining 1.7% mainly led by ITC and Radico Khaitan, while Nifty Realty advanced 1.4% with Lodha and Aditya Birla Real Estate as top performers. Nifty Auto gained 1.15% led by Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra, and Nifty IT advanced 1% mainly led by Tech Mahindra and Infosys. Maruti climbed 2.82% after the country's largest carmaker reported a record annual consolidated net profit of ₹14,679.5 crore in FY26, a year-on-year growth of 1.24%, riding on its best-ever annual sales of over 24.22 lakh units, propelled by GST rate reduction. Among sectoral indices, FMCG jumped the most by 1.57%, followed by Realty (1.42%), Telecommunication (1.28%), Energy (1.14%), Auto (1.02%), MidSmall Private Banks Quality Tilt (0.83%) and IT (0.81%). Utilities dropped 1.22%, Power (1.05%), Consumer Durables (0.43%), Hospitals (0.42%), PSU Bank (0.42%) and Bankex (0.07%).
Broader markets also saw buying interest, with smallcap stocks outperforming midcaps, rising around 1%. In the midcap space, Godfrey Phillips, Aditya Birla Capital, Vodafone Idea, Phoenix Mills and IndusInd Bank gained between 4% and 6%, while Lenskart, Swiggy, JSW Energy, BHEL and Blue Star declined between 2% and 3%. In the smallcap segment, Bandhan Bank, Devyani International, GRSE, RBL Bank and GE Ship rallied sharply, gaining between 5% and 13%, while Cohance, Pine Labs, Tata Chemicals and Meesho fell in the range of 2% to 5%. According to The Economic Times, stocks showing buying interest included GRSE, Canara HSBC Life, Star Health and Allied Insurance Company, CEAT, Vedanta, Sapphire Foods India and Abans Enterprises. Tech stocks continued their recovery trend, with the index gaining another 0.80% as it recouped recent losses. The BSE SmallCap Select index climbed 0.75%, while the MidCap Select index declined 0.49%. 152 stocks hit their 52-week highs while 30 stocks slipped to their 52-week lows, with notable gainers including Aarti Industries, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Green Energy, Adani Power, Bandhan Bank, BHEL, Coal India and Cupid. However, broader market sentiment remained mixed with out of 4,402 stocks that traded on BSE, 2,051 witnessed advances, 2,180 saw declines while 171 remained unchanged.
Analysts suggest cautious optimism with key technical levels identified for future market direction. Aakash Shah, Technical Analyst at Choice Broking, noted that the BSE Sensex delivered a strong technical rebound session, closing at 77,496, up by 609 points, as markets recovered sharply after the previous day's weakness. The index opened firm and extended gains during the first half of the session, touching an intraday high of 77,982. However, profit booking emerged at higher levels in the latter half, leading to some cooling off from the day's peak. The rally was broadly led by Auto, FMCG, Defence and Select Realty stocks, which emerged as major gainers and provided leadership to the benchmark. Strong buying interest was visible in heavyweight counters such as Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki and oil-linked names, while technology stocks also witnessed value buying after recent underperformance. From a technical perspective, Shah said the Sensex has reclaimed its immediate breakout support zone and formed a bullish recovery candle on daily charts. "This move suggests continuation of a pullback rally within a larger consolidation structure. Immediate support is now placed near 76,900 – 76,800, followed by stronger base support around 76,500," the analyst noted. On the upside, immediate resistance is seen near 78,100 – 78,300, while a decisive breakout above this zone may trigger fresh momentum towards higher levels. Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities noted that the Nifty rallied above the 50EMA but failed to sustain above it on a closing basis, though it held above the support level of 24,150 on the daily timeframe. Rajesh Bhosale, Technical Analyst at Angel One highlighted that today's price action remained confined within two key short-term moving averages, with the 24,300-24,350 zone acting as an immediate hurdle and the 20 DEMA along with the psychological level of 24,000 seen as immediate support. Given ongoing geopolitical tensions and the extended weekend ahead, experts suggest it would be prudent to keep positions light overnight, as markets may witness heightened volatility following key state election results.
