Sensex, Nifty Surge on IT Rally: Fed Rate Cuts Boost Market

Mumbai, Mar 20 (PTI) Stock markets surged in early trade on Thursday powered by a rally in IT stocks and firm trends in the US equities after the Federal Reserve maintained its rate cut projections for this year.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 478.13 points to 75,927.18 in early trade. The NSE Nifty surged 149.1 points to 23,056.70.

From the Sensex pack, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Zomato, Tech Mahindra, Titan and Mahindra & Mahindra were the biggest gainers.

However, Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement, Adani Ports and Tata Steel were among the laggards.

"The domestic market is expected to continue its rally, driven by strong momentum in global markets following the US Federal Reserve's announcement to cut interest rates twice this year," Vikas Jain, Head of Research at Reliance Securities, said.

In Asian markets, Seoul traded in the positive territory while Shanghai and Hong Kong quoted lower.

US markets ended significantly higher on Wednesday.

"The Fed holding the rates and projecting lower growth at 1.7 per cent and higher inflation at 2.8 per cent for 2025 are on expected lines. In the Indian market, two trends are significant. One, domestic consumption themes are finding favour. Two, beaten down themes like defence/shipping are finding favour," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.54 per cent to USD 71.16 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,096.50 crore on Wednesday after a day's breather, according to exchange data. Domestic Institutional Investors (DII), however, bought equities worth Rs 2,140.76 crore.

"Fed continues to project an additional two rate cuts this year which may create a tailwind for global equities in the near term," Dhawal Ghanshyam Dhanani, Fund Manager at SAMCO Mutual Fund, said.

On Wednesday, the Sensex climbed 147.79 points or 0.20 per cent to settle at 75,449.05. The Nifty rose 73.30 points or 0.32 per cent to 22,907.60.