Sensex, Nifty rise marginally, led by auto and energy; all eyes on Fed's next move

Ahead of the Fed interest rate decision on Wednesday, the domestic stock market closed marginally higher on Tuesday, led by gains in auto and energy stocks.

The benchmark Sensex rose 99 points, or 0.12%, to settle at 81,455. The broader NSE Nifty gained 21 points, or 0.09%, to end at 21,857.

From the Sensex pack, Tata Motors, NTPC, Power Grid, and Bajaj Finserv were the top gainers, rising 2-3.4%. On the other hand, Sun Pharma, ITC, HUL, Bharti Airtel, and UltraTech Cement ended lower.

Sector-wise, the Nifty Consumer Durables closed 1.12% higher, while the Nifty Auto ended 0.6% higher. In contrast, the Nifty FMCG, IT, Pharma, PSU Bank, and Healthcare sectors finished lower.

Meanwhile, domestically focused smallcap and midcap indices rose 0.9% and 0.5%, respectively.

Among individual stocks, Varun Beverages closed 6.4% lower though the PepsiCo bottler’s profit after tax rose 25.5% to Rs 1,261.83 crore for the June quarter compared with Rs 1,005.42 crore in the same quarter last year.

Meanwhile, the market capitalisation of all listed companies on BSE surged by Rs 1.06 lakh crore to Rs 460.98 lakh crore. The market breadth was skewed in favour of the bulls. About 2,297 stocks gained, 1,605 declined, and 121 remained unchanged on the BSE.