The domestic equity benchmarks surged as they hit the day's high in mid afternoon trade. The Nifty was trading above the 15,850 mark. IT shares rose for third consecutive session.

At 14:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 241.82 points or 0.46% to 52,894.89. The Nifty 50 index added 78.80 points or 0.50% to 15,857.25.

Broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index added 0.91%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.97%.

Buyers outnumbered the sellers. On the BSE, 1969 shares rose and 1204 shares fell. A total of 139 shares were unchanged.

COVID-19 Update:

Total COVID-19 confirmed cases worldwide stood at 19,66,31,596 with 41,99,002 deaths. India reported 4,05,155 active cases of COVID-19 infection and 4,23,217 deaths while 3,07,43,972 patients have been discharged, according to the data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty IT index rose 1.08% to 30,698.45, extending gains for third day. The index has added 2.7% in three sessions.

Tech Mahindra (up 8.07%), MindTree (up 4.10%), HCL Tech (up 2.94%) and Larsen & Toubro Infotech (up 1.50%) advanced while Mphasis (down 1.72%), Oracle (down 1.64%), Coforge (down 1.38%) declined.

Numbers to Track:

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee fell to 74.3625 compared with its previous closing of 74.29.

MCX Gold futures for 5 August 2021 settlement shed 0.10% to Rs 48,231.

The US Dollar index (DXY), which tracks the greenback's value against a basket of currencies, was down 0.04% to 91.83.

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper rose to 6.206% from its previous close of 6.198%.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for October 2021 settlement lost 8 cents or 0.11% to $75.02 a barrel. The contract added 1.67% or $1.23 to settle at $75.10 in the previous trading session.