SENSEX surges 1,310 points, NIFTY reclaims 22,800: Top factors behind today's sharp rally

The Indian equity benchmarks held on to gains after staging a gap-up opening on Friday, April 11, led by a rally in index heavyweights such as HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and Larsen & Toubro.

The SENSEX rose as much as 1,620 points, and the NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 22,924 after US President Donald Trump on Wednesday paused tariff implementation on most countries by 90 days. With today's surge market capitalisation of listed firms on BSE surged ₹6.96 lakh crore.

The SENSEX ended 1,310 points higher at 75,157 and NIFTY50 index advanced 429 points to close at 22,828.55.

Trump’s easing stance on tariffs

US President Trump's decision to pause tariffs by 90 days sent markets across the world northbound on Wednesday, with US stocks rising 9.5%. Markets in Europe surged, with Germany's DAX closing 4.53% higher, England's FTSE100 surging 3.04%, and France's CAC40 index advancing 3.83%.

Asian markets

However, most markets in Asia were trading lower after US stocks gave up much of their historic gains on Thursday from the day before after China announced more countermeasures against the United States, and losses for US stocks accelerated after the White House clarified that the United States will tax Chinese imports at 145%, not the 125% rate that Trump had written about in his posting on Truth Social on Wednesday, once other previously announced tariffs were included, news agency Associated Press (AP) reported.

China, meanwhile, has been seeking to join forces with other countries in apparent hopes of forming a united front against Trump. The world’s second-largest economy is also ramping up its own countermeasures to Trump’s tariffs.

Japan's Nikkei fell 4.25%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index declined 1.4%, China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.12% and South Korea's KOSPI fell 1%.

Sectoral picture

Back home, buying was visible across the board, as all the major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher, led by the NIFTY Metal index's nearly 3.5% gain. NIFTY Auto, Bank, IT, Media, Realty, Healthcare, Consumer Durables, Pharma and PSU Bank indices also rose in the range of 1-2%.

Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as the NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 1.2% and the NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 1.86%.

NIFTY50 gainers and losers

Tata Steel was the top gainer in the NIFTY50 basket of shares. The stock rose 4.53% to ₹133. Hindalco, JSW Steel, Coal India, Adani Enterprises, Eternal, Cipla and Bajaj Finserv also rose between 3 and 3.8%.

On the flipside, Asian Paints, Nestle India and Apollo Hospitals were among the notable losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,886 shares were advancing while 609 were declining on the BSE.