Indian headline indices snapped their two-session losing streak on Tuesday reversing the bearish opening trends mainly led by a rebound in IT stocks as investors await key domestic and US economic data due later in the week.

While the Nifty ended at 22,198, gaining 76.30 points or 0.34%, the 30-stock S&P BSE Sensex closed the session at 73,095, up by 305 points or 0.42%.

Top gainers & losers

The Nifty breadth remained in favour of the bulls with 28 stocks ending in the green, while 22 settling with cuts. The top gainers were Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Power Grid, IndusInd Bank and Sun Pharmaceuticals while the top losers were Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India (SBI), Bajaj Finserv and Divi’s Laboratories.

Of the 15 Nifty sectoral indices, 9 settled with a positive bias led by Nifty Realty, which was up over 1%. However, in terms of impact, IT led the way with TCS shining the most followed by Tata Motors. Nifty Auto closed with gains of 0.71%. Banking gauge Nifty Bank reversed some of its morning losses to end with 11 points lead at 46,588.05.

PSU Banks and FMCG were at the receiving end of investors’ ire.

Expert Take

Commenting on the day’s action, Rupak De, senior technical analyst at LKP Securities said the trend remains positive as the index has consistently stayed above the near-term moving average. “The Nifty has formed a bullish engulfing pattern after two days of weakness. Overall, the bulls may continue to exert control as the index has closed above the previous consolidation high. A decisive move above 22,200 might propel the index for a decent rally towards 22,400 in the near term. Support on the lower end is situated at 22,000,” De said.As far as the Bank Nifty was concerned, it has had a range-bound trade between 46,325 and 46,722. “In today’s trading session, it held on to the 40-day average (46300) and bounced back. We expect the positive momentum to continue over the next few trading sessions. On the upside, an immediate hurdle is placed at 47,000 and above that 47,200,” said Jatin Gedia, technical research analyst at Sharekhan.

Global Markets

Most major Asian indices closed in the green with China’s Shanghai Composite ending up as a clear winner among its peers. The index closed with gains of 1.3% and was followed by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, which settled up by nearly 1%. Japanese Nikkei 225 closed with gains of 5 points.

Among the European markets, Germany’s Dax was trading 81 points higher at 17,504.70 around 4 pm while the UK’s FTSE MIB Index was up 0.31%. French CAC 40 was trading flat at 7,929.15 while Spain’s IBEX 35 was trading 0.37% lower at 10,099.

Currency Watch

The Indian rupee ended flat on Tuesday after drifting in a tight band throughout the session as dollar demand from domestic oil companies eroded room for gains on the back of sustained inflows, Reuters reported.

The rupee closed at 82.8975 against the US dollar, barely changing from its close of 82.89 in the previous session. It moved between 82.88 and 82.9025 during the session. The dollar index edged lower to 103.7, while Asian currencies were mostly range-bound heading into the release of key US economic data, which will offer cues on the timing of US Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, this report said.

Crude Impact

Oil prices traded with marginal declines on Tuesday having ended Monday’s session nearly flat, though with a minor uptick. The crude oil futures were trading at $77.530 per BBL, down by $0.030 or 0.04% while the Brent Oil futures were down by $0.12 or 0.11% at $81.550.

Meanwhile, on the MCX, the March crude oil futures were trading at Rs 6,435 per bbl around this time and were lower by Rs 31 or 0.48%.

(With input from agencies)

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