Markets rise for two days in a row
MUMBAI: The Sensex and Nifty defied gravity for the second straight session on Tuesday following brisk buying in market heavyweight Reliance Industries Lt (RIL) as well as banking and finance counters.
Shrugging off the Covid-19 crisis, the 30-share BSE Sensex opened in the green and gained further momentum during the session. It finally finished at 48,944.14, up 557.63 points, or 1.15%.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty surged 168.05 points, or 1.16%, to end at 14,653.05.
L&T topped the Sensex gainers’ chart, climbing 3.33%, followed by Bajaj Finance, RIL, Indusind Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel.
On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki was the biggest loser, shedding 1.24%, after the country’s largest carmaker reported a 6.14% decline in consolidated net profit at ₹1,241.1 crore for the March quwarter.
NTPC, Kotak Bank, Nestle India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Dr Reddy’s and Axis Bank were the other laggards, shedding up to 0.54%.
Persistent strength in US markets has rubbed off on Indian stocks, with dip in treasury yields ahead of FOMC decision also helping the overall risk appetite, said Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit
Financial Services.
Banks have been quite upbeat lately and extended gains by over 1% post noon, but it was metals that shone with over 2.5% gains. “However, with April derivative expiry approaching, and with Nifty option premiums not pricing much above 14,700 for now, caution is recommended,” he added.
Binod Modi, head-strategy at Reliance Securities, said: “In our view, short covering ahead of F&O expiry is also supporting market rally in this week. Notably, lower than expected March quarter performance led to selling pressure in Maruti and HDFC Life. However, huge buying was seen in midcap and smallcap stocks today.”
All sectoral indices ended in the positive terrain, with BSE metal, basic materials, capital goods, industrials, energy and consumer durables indices surging up to 2.83%.