Market Wrap: Indian stocks rise on Fed rate cut hopes, cooling domestic inflation; Sensex gains 304 points, Nifty tops 24,600

India’s benchmark indexes closed in the green on Wednesday, led by gains in auto and financial stocks, as softer U.S. retail inflation bolstered bets on a Federal Reserve rate cut in September and signs of easing domestic price pressures lifted investor sentiment.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 0.38% or 304.32 points to close at 80,565 and the broader NSE Nifty 50 index closed at 24,619.35, higher by 0.54% or 131.95 points.

Top Gainers & Losers

On the 30-stock Sensex, top performers included BEL, Eternal, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, which advanced between 1.4% and 2.3%.

On a sectoral basis, auto shares gained 1.1% and financials rose 0.4%.

Among individual moves, Apollo Hospitals surged 7.9% and Hindalco climbed 5% after posting earnings, making them the top gainers on the Nifty.

Beauty retailer Nykaa jumped 5.1% following a twofold increase in profit, while Paytm rose 3.1% after its payments arm won in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India to operate as an online payments aggregator.Broader markets also strengthened, with small-cap and mid-cap indexes advancing 0.7% and 0.6%, respectively.