Indian stocks rally for 3rd day, Sensex closes 696 points higher

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 2 : The Indian equities markets continued winning run for the third straight day on Wednesday as key indices Sensex and Nifty closed with a gain of over 1 per cent led by strong buying support in financial and IT stocks.
The 30 stock S&P BSE Sensex closed at 59,558.33 points, which is 695.76 points or 1.18 per cent higher when compared with its previous day's close at 58,862.57 points.
The Sensex opened with handsome gains at 59,293.44 points and surged to a high of 59,618.51 points in the intra-day.
The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange closed 203.15 points or 1.16 per cent higher at 17,780 points against its previous day's close at 17,576.85 points.
Earlier the Nifty opened in the positive at 17,706.20 points and surged to a high of 17,794.60 points in the intra-day.
The stock markets have rallied after the presentation of Union Budget 2022-23. In the budget tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed to significantly boost investments in order to accelerate economic growth. She proposed to increase capital expenditure by 35.4 per cent to Rs 7.50 lakh crore in 2022-23 from Rs 5.54 lakh crore in the current year.
Financial and IT stocks witnessed a sharp rally on Wednesday. IndusInd Bank surged 5.57 per cent to Rs 973.40. Bajaj Finserv soared 5.13 per cent to Rs 16706.90. Bajaj Finance climbed 3.17 per cent to Rs 7247.40. Kotak Bank soared 3.01 per cent to Rs 1942.30. Axis Bank closed 2.93 per cent higher at Rs 803.95.
Among the IT stocks HCL Technologies soared 3.40 per cent to Rs 1171.10. Wipro surged 1.97 per cent to Rs 588.15. TCS closed 1.48 per cent higher at Rs 3857. However, Tech Mahindra slipped 1.61 per cent to Rs 1482.75.
Nestle India 1.03 per cent down at Rs 18471.60; UltraTech Cement 0.97 per cent down at Rs 7439.50; Maruti Suzuki 0.48 per cent down at Rs 8516.75 and L&T 0.47 per cent down at Rs 1981.85 were among the major Sensex losers.