Sensex rises 672 points, Nifty reclaims 17,800; NTPC, SBI, PowerGrid top gainers

Benchmark indices ended higher for the second consecutive session of 2022 today despite a spike in Covid -19 cases. Sensex ended 672 points higher at 59,855 and Nifty climbed 179 points to 17,805.

Of 30 Sensex shares, 25 ended in the green. Market cap of BSE listed firms rose to Rs 271.40 lakh crore.

NTPC, SBI and PowerGrid were the top Sensex gainers , rising up to 5.56%. Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Ultratech Cement, Dr Reddy's Labs and Infosys were the only Sensex losers falling up to 1.21%.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, "Tracking strong momentum of global peers, domestic bourses witnessed a smooth sail, steered by index heavyweights and gains in financials and consumer durables. Despite surging covid cases, investor sentiments remain positive globally as reports suggest lower impact of the new variant on the economic recovery. However, India's unemployment rate rose to 7.9% in December as compared to 7% in November owing to muted economic activity in rural and urban India amid rise in Omicron cases."

BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices rose 12 points to 25,257 and 117 points to 29,925, respectively.

On the sectoral front, banking, capital goods and consumer durables led the gains. BSE bankex zoomed 543 points, BSE capital goods index gained 244 points and BSE consumer durables climbed 330 points.

The market breadth was positive with 1,892 shares ending higher against 1,489 stocks in the red. 108 shares were unchanged.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market on Monday, purchasing shares worth Rs 575.39 crore, exchange data showed.

The rupee fell 29 paise to close at 74.57 against the US dollar, tracking the strength of the American currency in the overseas market. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened at 74.49 and witnessed an intra-day high of 74.46 and a low of 74.61 against the US dollar.

On Monday, Sensex ended 929 points higher at 59,183 and Nifty rallied 271 points to 17,625. Bajaj Finance was the top  Sensex gainer, rising 3.50 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank and IndusInd  Bank. Dr Reddy's, M&M, Tech Mahindra and Nestle India were the only Sensex losers, falling up to 1.13%.

 Global markets

Global shares were mostly higher on Tuesday despite worries over rising numbers of coronavirus cases.

France's CAC 40 added 0.7 per cent in early trading to 7,266.59, while Germany's DAX edged up 0.3 per cent to 16,064.91. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 1.2 per cent to 7,475.46. The future contract for the Dow industrials was 0.2 per cent higher and the contract for the S&P 500 also gained 0.2 per cent.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 1.8 per cent to 29,301.79 in Tokyo's first trading day of 2022. Shares also rose in Australia, South Korea and Hong Kong, but edged lower in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.27 per cent to $79.19 per barrel.