Sensex Rises 150 Points; Infosys Gains Ahead Of Q2 Earnings

Indian stocks started Tuesday's session on a positive note, with Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark index Sensex gaining more than 150 points and the Nifty rising above 10,200. The Sensex added 163.65 points to 32,670.37 while the NSE benchmark Nifty rose 52.9 points to 10,237.75 at its day's high. Gains in the market were led by energy, metal, realty, infra and banking stocks, which rose between 0.5 per cent and 1.6 per cent in late morning deals. Brokers said fresh spell of buying by investors ahead of quarterly earnings from Infosys and a few other blue chip companies later in the day and a firming trend at other Asian bourses buoyed domestic trading sentiment. Continuous buying by domestic financial institutions also supported trading sentiment.

Among Nifty50 stocks,  ONGC, Vedanta, NTPC, Bharti Infratel, Yes Bank, Tata Steel, IOC and GAIL India were the prominent gainers - up between 1.3 per cent and 2.7 per cent. Infosys shares gained as much as 0.8 per cent to Rs 946.65, ahead of its earnings announcement for the July-September quarter later in the day.

Domestic institutional investors continued their buying spree with another Rs 307.84 crore purchase of cash shares on Monday. Meanwhile, foreign investors sold shares worth Rs 81 crore on Monday, according to the provisional exchange data.

Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.12 per cent and Japan's Nikkei gained 0.17 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.09 per cent in early trade on Tuesday. Investors are closely watching China and the 19th Communist Party Congress, which winds up on Tuesday and at which President Xi Jinping is expected to release the composition of the Standing Committee - the apex of power in the country. (Read more)

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, shed 0.23 per cent overnight.