Sensex jumps nearly 540 pts on buying in bluechip banks, oil shares
Mumbai, Jul 23 (PTI): Benchmark Sensex jumped nearly 540 points while Nifty closed above the 25,200 level on Wednesday on heavy buying in banking giants and oil shares and a positive trend in Asian markets after Japan secured a trade deal with the US.
The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 539.83 points or 0.66 per cent to settle at 82,726.64. During the day, it surged 599.62 points or 0.72 per cent to 82,786.43.
The 50-share NSE Nifty gained 159 points or 0.63 per cent to settle at 25,219.90 as 37 of its constituents advanced and 13 declined.
Among Sensex firms, Tata Motors rose the most by 2.51 per cent. Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries were also the major gainers.
Private banking giants HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank hit their 52-week high levels intra-day before settling nearly 1 per cent higher.
Value buying in Reliance Industries, following five days of losses, also supported the rally. RIL shares closed higher by 0.83 per cent.
However, Hindustan Unilever, UltraTech Cement, Bharat Electronics and ITC were among the laggards.
"The Indian equity market demonstrated resilience despite a mixed start to Q1 FY26 earnings. Positive global cues, underpinned by optimism surrounding the US-Japan trade agreement, have supported sentiment. Additionally, progress toward finalising the India-UK FTA has further contributed to the constructive outlook.
"Continued advancements in global trade negotiations are expected to alleviate near-term trade tensions and foster greater market stability. While elevated valuations remain a concern, the prevailing market strength indicates potential for near-term earnings recovery. However, the pace and sustainability of this recovery will be critical in shaping the market’s forward trajectory," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.
The BSE midcap gauge climbed 0.24 per cent and smallcap index went up by 0.05 per cent.
Among BSE sectoral indices, telecommunication jumped 1.14 per cent, followed by auto (0.86 per cent), bankex (0.75 per cent), teck (0.74 per cent), financial services (0.70 per cent), healthcare (0.70 per cent) and energy (0.65 per cent).
Realty dropped 2.60 per cent, FMCG (0.46 per cent), capital goods (0.31 per cent) and services (0.20 per cent).
In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumped 3.51 per cent as US President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Japan, with a 15 per cent tax on goods imported from that country. South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng settled in positive territory.
"On the global stage, investor sentiment soared following optimistic developments surrounding the US-Japan trade pact, igniting expectations for further international agreements in the near future," according to Ashika Institutional Equities.
Markets in Europe were trading in the green. The US markets ended mostly higher on Tuesday.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,548.92 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 5,239.77 crore in the previous trade.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.45 per cent to USD 68.29 a barrel.
The rupee stayed weak for the sixth consecutive session and settled with a loss of 3 paise at 86.41 against the dollar on Wednesday, amid a strong American currency and outflow of foreign funds.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
