Image used for representational purpose.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Stock markets extended the winning run to seventh day on Wednesday (April 23, 2025) with benchmark BSE Sensex jumping 520 points to close above 80,000 level for the first time in four months driven by strong gains in IT and auto shares.

The 30-share Sensex rose by 520.90 points or 0.65% to settle at 80,116.49, the highest closing level since December 18. During the day, it surged 658.96 points or 0.82% to 80,254.55.

Also read | Sensex reclaims 80,000-level on global markets rally, foreign fund inflows

The NSE Nifty rallied 161.70 points or 0.67% to 24,328.95.

Foreign fund inflows and positive global trends also boosted the market sentiment, analysts said.

Among the Sensex firms, HCL Tech surged the most by 7.72% after the firm posted an 8.1% increase in consolidated net profit at ₹4,307 crore for March quarter 2024-25, mainly on account of large deals with a total contract value of about ₹25,500 crore.

Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel and Maruti were also among major gainers.

Banking shares witnessed a sell-off after recent sharp gains with leading private lender HDFC Bank dropping by 1.98% to emerge as the biggest loser among Sensex shares.

Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ITC and UltraTech Cement were also among the laggards.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi index, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng settled in the positive territory. Shanghai SSE Composite ended marginally lower.

Markets in Europe were trading significantly higher.

U.S. markets bounced back sharply on Tuesday. Nasdaq Composite surged 2.71%, Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 2.66% and S&P 500 rallied 2.51%.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth ₹1,290.43 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

“The Indian equity market sustained its positive momentum, driven by better outcome from the latest set of IT results and optimistic forward-looking comments. However, profit-booking was visible in financials after the recent sharp rally.

“While US-China trade tensions appear to be easing, a rally in U.S. tech stocks has further bolstered overall global market sentiment,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

The BSE midcap gauge climbed 0.94% and smallcap index went up by 0.26%.

Among BSE sectoral indices, BSE Focused IT surged 4.25%, IT jumped 4%, teck (3.10%), auto (2.34%), realty (1.37%), consumer discretionary (1.02%), healthcare (0.96%) and industrials (0.845).

Financial Services, bankex and consumer durables were the laggards.

As many as 2,078 stocks advanced while 1,873 declined and 155 remained unchanged on the BSE.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 1.35% to $68.35 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark climbed 187.09 points or 0.24% to settle at 79,595.59 on Tuesday. The Nifty went up by 41.70 points or 0.17% to 24,167.25.

Representative image
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Electric two-wheeler maker Ather Energy Ltd on Wednesday (April 23, 2025) said it has fixed a price band of ₹304 to ₹321 a piece for its ₹2,981 crore Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The issue will be open for public subscription from April 28 to April 30.

The bidding for anchor investors will open for a day on April 25, the company announced. This will be the first mainboard public issue of the current financial year (2025-26).

The IPO will be a combination of fresh issue of equity shares worth ₹2,626 crore, and an Offer-For-Sale (OFS) of 1.1 crore equity shares by promoters and other shareholders.

Ather intends to raise funds for the establishment of an electric two-wheeler factory in Maharashtra and for debt reduction. At the upper end of the price band, the IPO size is pegged at ₹2,981 crore, placing the company’s overall valuation at ₹11,956 crore.

This will be the second electric two-wheeler company looking to go public after Ola Electric Mobility floated its ₹6,145 crore IPO in August last year.

Ola Electric’s IPO had a fresh issue of up to ₹5,500 crore and an OFS of up to 8.5 crore equity shares.

Apart from its IPO plans, Ather Energy has also been expanding its research and development capabilities. Recently, the company announced the expansion of its R&D and testing capabilities at its product testing & validation centre.

The electric two-wheeler company has set aside 75% of the issue for qualified institutional buyers, 15% for non-institutional investors and the remaining 10% for retail investors.

Axis Capital, JM Financial, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India), and HSBC Securities & Capital Markets are the IPO’s book-running lead managers. The equity shares of the company are expected to list on May 6 on the stock exchanges.