Sensex, Nifty surge in early trade powered by rally in IT stocks

From the Sensex pack, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Zomato, Tech Mahindra, Titan and Mahindra & Mahindra were the biggest gainers. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Stock markets surged in early trade on Thursday (March 20, 2025) powered by a rally in IT stocks and firm trends in the U.S. 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 U.S. 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. The U.S. markets ended significantly higher on Wednesday (March 19, 2025.)

“The Fed holding the rates and projecting lower growth at 1.7% and higher inflation at 2.8% 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% to $71.16 a barrel. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹1,096.50 crore on Wednesday (March 19, 2025) after a day’s breather, according to exchange data. Domestic Institutional Investors (DII), however, bought equities worth ₹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 (March 19, 2025), the Sensex climbed 147.79 points or 0.20% to settle at 75,449.05. The Nifty rose 73.30 points or 0.32% to 22,907.60.