Closing Bell: Sensex closes up by 619 points, Nifty ends above 17150; Pharma stocks drag

Indian share markets rose over 1% each on Wednesday as strong economic data boosted the optimism.

After a volatile trading session on Tuesday, the domestic equity benchmark ended higher on Wednesday as investor sentiment got a positive boost from a strong set of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data that was announced after market hours on November 30. During today's trading session the Sensex rose as much as 782 points and Nifty index briefly scaled its important psychological level of 17,200 led by gains in Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC, State Bank of India and HDFC.

At the closing bell on Wednesday, the Sensex was up 619.92 points or 1.09% at 57,684.79, and the Nifty was up 183.70 points or 1.08% at 17,166.90. On market depth, around 1859 shares have advanced, 1323 shares declined, and 130 shares remain unchanged.

Major gainers on the Nifty index were IndusInd Bank, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, Adani Ports and Axis Bank, while the top losers included Cipla, Divis Labs, Dr Reddy’s Labs, UltraTech Cement and Sun Pharma.

On a sectoral basis, except pharma, all other sectoral indices closed in the green with metal indices adding over 2%. In the broader markets, BSE midcap index gained 1% and smallcap index added 0.27%.

Among the buzzing news that lifted the market sentiment was the GDP data report released by the government. Indian economy grew at the fastest pace of any major economy in the July-September quarter. Gross domestic product expanded 8.4% in the September quarter from a year earlier, showed the statistics ministry data, in line with the growth predicted in a Reuters poll.

In the trending stocks, IndusInd Bank stock rose 6% to close at Rs 934.50. JSW Steel, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Adani Ports, State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki, Hindalco and tech Mahindra also rose between 3-5%.