Sensex jumps 939 points, Nifty reclaims 23,400: Why the market rebounded today

Indian equity benchmarks staged a sharp rebound on Monday, pausing a steep three-session slide. The 30-share BSE Sensex surged 938.93 points or 1.26 per cent to close at 75,502.85, while the NSE Nifty50 climbed 257.70 points or 1.11 per cent to settle at 23,408.80.

Buying interest in select heavyweights such as HDFC Bank Ltd, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), ICICI Bank Ltd, State Bank of India (SBI), Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), Bajaj Finance Ltd, ITC, UltraTech Cement Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd and Eternal Ltd lifted the headline indices higher.

Among individual stocks, ITI Ltd, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), Paisalo Digital Ltd, CSB Bank Ltd and Ganesha Ecosphere Ltd emerged as top gainers, rising up to 18.50 per cent. On the flip side, IDBI Bank Ltd, TTK Prestige Ltd, Bandhan Bank Ltd, Westlife Foodworld Ltd and Adani Total Gas Ltd plunged up to 16.49 per cent.

The broader market, however, underperformed the benchmarks. The Nifty Midcap 100 declined 0.27 per cent, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 slipped 0.53 per cent.

Market veteran Arun Kejriwal advised investors to avoid panic selling amid the ongoing volatility.

“The one thing that I would ask investors not to do is panic at this level and sell what they own. Hold on. You need to have patience. Probably the end of March will show a lot of clarity,” market veteran Arun Kejriwal told Business Today.

“The clear message to investors: Don’t panic, be patient. On the contrary, is it a time to do cherry-picking? I would suggest no. Again, hold on. March-end or early April could be a better time. There certainly would be more clarity and you would have reasons ahead of you to start looking at the market all over again,” he also said.

In terms of sectoral focus, Kejriwal highlighted the importance of the banking space, noting that the sector plays a critical role in driving economic growth.

“Also remember that if the economy has to do well, banking will always be something which has to perform. Without banking performing, the economy cannot perform. So keep this in mind,” he said.

Kranthi Bathini, Equity Strategist at WealthMills Securities, noted that today’s upmove in domestic benchmarks is largely due to short covering following a sharp three-session sell-off.

From a financial market standpoint, Vinit Bolinjkar, Head of Research at Ventura Securities, believes the bottom could be close and that market may now gradually start moving up.