Stock Market: Sensex Rises Over 400 Points, Nifty Trades Above 18,000. IT Stocks Lead

Stock update: On the 30-share Sensex platform, HUL, L&T, HCL, NTPC, HDFC twins, ITC, and others emerged early winners

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty on Tuesday that began trade on a muted note, quickly moved higher. After a flat start, the S&P BSE Sensex at 10.05 am gained 411 points to 60,504, while the NSE Nifty50 was trading at 18,009, up 115 points.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, HUL, L&T, HCL, NTPC, HDFC twins, ITC, and others emerged early winners. On the flip side, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finance Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, and M&M were the only five losers.

Among individual stocks, shares of Reliance Industries and ONGC gained up to 0.85 per cent. In a late night notification on Monday, Centre announced a cut in its windfall tax on crude to Rs 1,900 ($23.28) per tonne from Rs 2,100 per tonne, effective Tuesday. Shares of M&M fell 0.6 per cent after the company announced pricing for XUV400, its first electric SUV, at Rs 15.99 lakh.  Shares of Siemens zoomed over 3 per cent after it signed a Rs 26,000-crore contract to manufacture 1,200 electric freight locomotives for the Indian Railways.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap and the BSE SmallCap indices underperformed the frontline indices by falling 0.1 per cent each.

Sectorwise, the Nifty IT index was the top gainer (up 0.54 per cent), while the Nifty Metal index was the worst hit (down 0.6 per cent).

In the previous session on Tuesday, the BSE Sensex settled 168 points lower at 60,093 dragged by HDFC twins, Reliance, Axis Bank, ICICI bank, L&T, HUL, Airtel and M&M, down 1-2 per cent. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 closed 62 points lower at 17,895.

Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated 31 paise to 81.89 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday weighed down by a rebound in American currency and firm crude oil prices. Sustained foreign fund outflows further dented investor sentiments, forex traders said.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened weak at 81.79 against the dollar, then fell to 81.89, registering a decline of 31 paise over its last close. In the previous session on Monday, the rupee settled at 81.58 against the US dollar.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced 0.19 per cent to $84.62 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital markets on Monday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 750.59 crore, according to exchange data.