Sensex, Nifty Gain For Second Straight Session Led By HDFC Twins, Airtel

The Indian equity benchmarks gained for the second straight session on Tuesday led by gains in HDFC, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, ICICI Bank, and Ultratech Cement. The Sensex rose as much as 408 points and the Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 17,344. For the most part of the day, benchmarks traded in a rangebound manner but gave a breakout on the upside in the last hour of trade paced by the recovery in the gauge of banking stocks.

The Sensex advanced 350 points to close at 57,944 and the Nifty 50 index rose 103 points to settle at 17,325.

Meanwhile, world shares were mostly higher Tuesday as another round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine got underway.

Crude oil prices reversed course with moderate gains after sinking 7 per cent on Monday.

Markets remain unsettled as investors try to gauge what’s next for inflation and the global economy as the repercussions of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continue to play out.

The first face-to-face talks in two weeks between Russia and Ukraine began Tuesday in Turkey, raising meager hopes of progress on ending a war that has ground into a bloody campaign of attrition.

Germany’s DAX jumped 1.3 per cent to 14,599.17 and the CAC40 in Paris surged 1.7 per cent to 6,700.18. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.8 per cent to 7,531.55.

Russia’s MOEX index climbed 3.7 per cent on the second day of full trading after it was closed for about a month following the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Limits have been imposed to curb volatility.

Back home, ten of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Pharma index's over 1.5 per cent gain. Nifty Healthcare, Consumer Durable, Realty and Financial Services indices also rose over 1 per cent.

On the other hand, the Auto, FMCG, Media, and Oil & Gas indices ended lower.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index advanced 0.41 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.34 per cent.

Eicher Motors was the top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4.5 per cent to close at Rs 2,487. HDFC, Divi's Labs, Adani Ports, JSW Steel, Bharti Airtel, Ultratech Cement, SBI Life, Cipla, HDFC Life, and Shree Cement also rose between 1.9-3.3 per cent.

On the flipside, Hero MotoCorp was the top Nifty loser, the stock fell nearly 7 per cent to close at Rs 2,219 after news agency ANI, citing sources, reported that the Income Tax Department has found that Hero MotoCorp made more than Rs 1,000 crore bogus expenses and over Rs 100 crore cash transactions for a farmhouse in Chhattarpur, Delhi.

ONGC, Coal India, Indian Oil, ITC, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, Bharat Petroleum, and State Bank of India fell between 0.4-3 per cent.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,980 shares ended lower while 1,431 closed higher on the BSE.

(With inputs from ANI)