The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Wednesday with Sensex rising over 650 points and Nifty reclaiming its important psychological level of 17,150 led by gains in HDFC, Reliance Industries, Infosys, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Bank. Meanwhile, other Asian markets also bounced back after falling in the previous session on concerns over new Covid-19 variant. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 1.42 per cent and Straits Times rose 1.2 per cent.

As of 9:31 am, the Sensex was up 613 points at 57,678 and Nifty advanced 201 points to 17,185.

In the previous session, Indian markets fell sharply in the previous session mirroring losses in global markets after drugmaker Moderna’s CEO set off fresh alarm bells in financial markets on Tuesday after he warned that COVID-19 vaccines were unlikely to be as effective against the Omicron variant as they have been against the Delta version.

However, the markets bounced back on strong GDP data that was announced after the market hours on Tuesday.

Indian economy grew at the fastest pace of any major economy in the July-September quarter data released by government showed. Gross domestic product expanded 8.4 per cent in the September quarter from a year earlier, statistics ministry data showed on Tuesday, in line with 8.4 per cent growth predicted in a Reuters poll and compared with a 20.1 per cent expansion in the previous quarter.

Twelve of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Financial Services index’s 1.2 per cent gain. Nifty Metal, Private Bank, Bank, IT and PSU Bank indices also rose between 0.7-1.2 per cent.

On the other hand, Nifty Pharma, Media and Healthcare indices were trading with a negative bias.

Mid- and small-cap shares were mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.4 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 0.15 per cent.

Eicher Motors was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3.5 per cent to Rs 2,452. IndusInd Bank, HDFC, Hindalco, Tech Mahindra, JSW Steel, HCL Technologies, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki, Axis Bank and Asian Paints also rose between 1-3 per cent.

On the flipside, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Indian Oil, Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra, ONGC, UltraTech Cement, Shree Cement and Grasim Industries were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,665 shares were advancing while 1,044 were declining on the BSE.