Sensex surges 500 pts, Nifty rises 1% in relief rally; IT, metal stocks shine

Snapping a two-session losing streak, Indian benchmark indices closed higher on Tuesday, led by gains in index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries, TCS, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Tata Steel and Tech Mahindra. The market witnessed broad-based buying, led by IT and metal space, amid firm global cues and bargain hunting by investors following the recent slump.

The BSE Sensex ended 497 points, or 0.89%, higher at 56,319, and the NSE Nifty closed at 16,786, up by 172 points or 1.04%. During the day’s trade, Sensex surged as much as 1,078 points or 1.9% to hit an intraday high of 56,900 points, while the Nifty gained 322 points to touch a day’s high of 16,936.

Broader markets outperform

The broader indices outperformed the largecap peers, with the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rising 1.4% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 1.3%.

The overall market breadth on the BSE was also positive, with 2,401 stocks advancing as against 1,139 declining shares, while 147 remained unchanged.

Top gainers and losers

The top gainer on the BSE Sensex pack was IT major HCL Technologies, which gained 3.9% to ₹1,205, followed by Wipro (₹690.75, 3.66%), Tech Mahindra (₹1,650, 3.20%), Tata Steel (₹1,104, 2.98%), and Titan Company (₹2,292, 2.35%), among others.

On the losing side, state-owned Power Grid Corporation of India topped the chart by falling 1.5% to ₹206.65 apiece on the BSE. The other notable losers were Axis Bank (₹665.95, -1.31%), Bajaj Finance (₹6,579, -0.82%), State Bank of India (₹445, -0.75%), and Mahindra and Mahindra (₹812, -0.58%).

Newsmakers

MapmyIndia: The newly listed company CE Info Systems, popularly known as MapmyIndia, made a strong debut on the domestic bourses today. The stock of the digital mapping company listed at a premium of 53% at ₹1,581 apiece on the BSE, against the issue price of ₹1,033 per share. Paring some of the early gains, the share settled day’s trade at ₹1,394.55, up 35%.

Wipro: Shares of the IT major surged 3.8% after it announced the acquisition of Texas-headquartered Edgile to boost its leadership in strategic cybersecurity services.

MTNL: The state-run telecom operator saw its shares rally 14.65% on hopes of divestment of its land bank. The stock of a wholly-owned subsidiary of BSNL, touched a 4-year high during the session.

IDBI Bank: Shares of the lender ended 0.9% higher after it clarified that Mumbai-based diamond merchant Sanghavi Diamonds has defaulted only on loan worth ₹16.72 crore, as against the reported amount of ₹6,710 crore.

McLeod Russel: Shares of the tea company dropped 0.7% as it expects its debt-restructuring plan to be finalised in the next few months.

Global markets

Asian stocks ended mostly higher on Tuesday despite negative closing at Wall Street in overnight trade as investors picked up some beaten down stocks at a bargain following the recent slump. European shares also opened higher, tracking firm cues from Asian peers. However, persistent concerns about the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 limited markets’ gain.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 emerged as the best performer in the Asia-Pacific region with a 2.08% gain. China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.9%, and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong surged 1%.

In a similar trend, the Straits Times Index in Singapore ended 0.4% higher, while the Australian benchmark index ASX 200 gained 0.9%.