Sensex zooms 700 points, Nifty ends above 17,300; banking, IT shares lead gains

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty recovered from early fall to end over 1 per cent higher on Tuesday, led by heavy buying in index heavyweight Reliance Industries, Infosys and TCS amid a rally in global equities.

Sensex closed higher by 696.81 points or 1.22 per cent at 57,989.30. It touched a high of 58,052.87 and a low of 56,930.30 in intra-day trade. The index rallied 760.38 points or 1.32 per cent during the day.

Nifty rallied 197.90 points or 1.16 per cent to end at 17,315.50.

Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, ITC, TCS, Indusind Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys and Power Grid were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 3.83%.

Share Market updates: Sensex ends 700 points higher, Nifty crosses 17,300; TechM, RIL top gainers

Hindustan Unilever Limited, Nestle India, NTPC, and Sun Pharma were only losers on Sensex falling up to 2.81%.

"The domestic market started with a negative bias taking cues from rising crude prices and hawkish signals from Fed on aggressive policy tightening. However, the trend reversed as European markets opened on a positive note buoyed by hope that Ukraine may consider working towards a truce," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 39 points and 41 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, IT shares were the top gainers with the BSE IT index rising 683 points to 36,041. Banking shares also gained, with their BSE index rising 438 points to 41,668, respectively.

The market breadth was negative with 1,629 shares ending higher against 1,780 stocks in the red. 104 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms stood to Rs 260.27 lakh crore.

Devarsh Vakil - Deputy Head, Retail Research, HDFC Securities said, "A bout of short covering helped Nifty to rise more than 300 points from intraday lows on report that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was prepared to discuss a commitment from Ukraine not to seek NATO membership in exchange for a cease-fire, the withdrawal of Russian troops and a guarantee of Ukraine's security. Market players were also enthused by the statement of the Reserve Bank of India that it will ensure ample liquidity to support the recovery of its economy, signaling above-target inflation was not as much of a threat. Support for the Nifty has now shifted up to 17100 and same should be kept as a stop-loss in trading long positions."

Meanwhile, the rupee pared its initial losses to settle flat at 76.18 against the American currency on Tuesday, tracking a positive trend in domestic equities.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened sharply lower at 76.39 against the US dollar. However, it recovered all its losses to closed at 76.18. On Monday, the rupee slumped 34 paise to close at 76.18 against the US dollar.

The Sensex plunged 571.44 points or 0.99 per cent to settle at 57,292.49. The Nifty declined by 169.45 points or 0.98 per cent to finish at 17,117.60.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 2,962.12 crore on Monday, according to stock exchange data.

Equity exchanges in Shanghai, Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo ended with significant gains. Stock exchanges in the US ended on a negative note in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 1.57 per cent to $113.8 per barrel.