Stocks soar as institutional buyers stay on sidelines

Indian stocks rallied on the Asian markets’ strength and hopes of the Chinese economy making a strong recovery in

2021 after a four-decade low growth last year. Equities made up most of the losses in the previous two sessions from acrossthe-board gains on Tuesday .

The Sensex gained 834 points, or 1.72 per cent, to close at 49,398 while the

Nifty-50 gained 239.85 points, or 1.8 per cent, to close at 14,521.

However, provisional data showed both foreign portfolio investors and domestic institutions have turned cautious and remained on the sidelines, as FPIs were net buyers by just Rs 257.55 crore while the domestic institutions were net sellers by Rs 199.30 crore.

The unusual surge in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index helped other Asian markets to trade higher, leading to gains in the Indian market.

"Asian shares ascended on Tuesday as investors bet China's economic strength would help support growth in the region, even as pandemic lockdowns threatened to lengthen the road to recovery in the West. European stocks climbed higher on Tuesday, sustained by hopes that an economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic is not far off," said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research, HDFC Securities.

Among sectoral indices, BSE Realty (4.04 per cent), Metal (3.01 per cent), Auto (1.83 per cent), Capital Goods (2.70 per cent) and Bankex ((1.95 per cent) were the major gainers even as all sectoral indices closed with gains.