Sensex leaps 1,163 pts from the day's low, ends 581 pts up; Nifty tops 16K

Bulls sprinted past the finish line in fag-end of the session as an across-the-board rally swept the markets. This came despite the global markets exhibiting a mixed trend on the bourses and commodity prices, including Brent crude futures, staying at elevated levels. Markets closed higher for the first time in five days.

The S&P BSE Sensex index surged 1,163 points from the day's low of 52,261 to end at 53,424 levels. This was 581 points or 1.1 per cent higher than the index's previous close. 

On the NSE, the Nifty50 shut shop at 16,013, up 150 points or 0.95 per cent. The index had hit a low of 15,671 in the intra-day trade.

About 24 of the 30 Sensex constituents and 37 of the 50 Nifty constituents ended the session with gains on Tuesday. The winners included Indian Oil Corporation, Sun Pharma, Tata Consumer Products, TCS, Cipla, Shree Cement, NTPC, Tech M, Dr Reddy's Labs, Wipro, Ultratech Cement, and Infosys. All these stocks were up in the range of 2-4.4 per cent.

On the downside, Hindalco, ONGC, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Britannia, Titan, and UPL slipped up to 4.5 per cent on profit booking. 

The broader markets, meanwhile, edned with solid gains and outperformed their large-cap peers. The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices added 1.45 per cent and 1.33 per cent, respectively.

Among individual shares, shares of city gas distribution (CGD) companies, Indraprastha Gas (IGL) and Mahanagar Gas (MGL), rallied up to 11 per cent in the intra-day trade on Tuesday amid reports of IGL announcing a hike in prices of compressed natural gas (CNG) in the Delhi-NCR region. The prices have been hiked by 50 paise per kilo in Delhi while Re 1 per kilo in the NCR region, as per reports. READ MORE

Shares of sugar companies were in demand and rallied up to 18 per cent on the BSE in Tuesday's intra-day trade on strong outlook. With a favourable mix of ethanol towards B-heavy/juice (feedstock) coupled with higher sugar realisations; operating margins of sugar companies are expected to improve. READ MORE

Shares of Natco Pharma rallied 9 per cent to Rs 920 on the BSE in Tuesday’s intra-day trade after the company launched its first generic version of Revlimid (Lenalidomide capsules) in 5 mg, 10 mg, 15 mg, and 25 mg strengths in the US market. Natco, along with marketing partner Teva, has launching these strengths of lenalidomide. READ MORE

Among sectors, the Nifty Realty index advanced 3.25 per cent today, the Nifty PSB and IT index rose nearly 3 per cent each, and the Nifty Pharma index was up 2.4 per cent. On the flipside, the Nifty Metal index slipped 1.5 per cent. 

Global markets

Asian markets ended on a weak note on Tuesday with Japan's Nikkei sliding 1.7 per cent, South Korea's Kospi 1 per cent, and Hong Kong's hang Seng 1.4 per cent. 

European markets, however, were trading higher. Euro STOXX 600 index was up 0.8 per cent, Germany's DAX 1.2 per cent, France's CAC40 2 per cent. The UK's FTSE100 was down 0.02 per cent.

Futures linked to the US' main indices gained up to 0.1 per cent.