The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex climbed 1.44 per cent to a six-week high today, gaining for the second day, as Infosys led IT stocks higher after kicking off the earnings season by keeping its revenue guidance unchanged, contrary to expectations.
The 30-share index opened 200 points higher and moved in a range of 19,991.94 and 19,785.59 before settling with a gain of 282.41 points at 19,958.47, the highest level since May 30. Yesterday, the Sensex had risen 2 per cent.
The broader Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange ended above the 6,000 level for the first time since May 30, jumping 1.25 per cent to 6,009.00. The SX40 index on the MCX-SX rose 1.23 per cent to 11,888.88.
Infosys was the star performer, surging 10.92 per cent and contributing 157.45 points of the Sensex's gains. The company retained its dollar revenue guidance for this fiscal at 6-10 per cent while revising its rupee revenue guidance upwards to 13-17 per cent from 6-10 per cent for the period on account of the rupee's depreciation.
"Infosys maintained its USD revenue growth guidance at 6-10 per cent, which we were expecting to come down to 6-8 per cent, said Ankita Somani, a research analyst at Angel Broking.
The country's second-largest software exporter posted an almost 4 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,374 crore for the April-June quarter.
India's top software exporter, TCS, gained 2.94 per cent and Wipro climbed 3.34 per cent. The BSE-IT index added 6.46 per cent, the top gainer among sectoral indices.
"Today's rally was mainly led by IT stocks as Infosys reported stellar numbers," said Sanjeev Zarbade, Vice President - Private Client Group Research at Kotak Securities. "As we enter the next week, there is the WPI inflation data. There are some banking sector numbers lined up as well."
The major gainers included Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, L&T, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy's Lab and Bharti Airtel.
Buying was seen in select key counters as the overall market breadth was negative, with lack of buying interest from retail investors in second-line stocks.
