Sensex Rallies Over 250 Points, Nifty Above 10,550

NDTV Profit Team

16 Oct 2018, 10:12 AM IST

Stock Market on Tuesday: Thirty seven out of 50 Nifty stocks traded with gains.

The stock markets started Tuesday's trading session on a firm note after the trade deficit for September hit a five-month low. The S&P BSE Sensex opened at 35,004.33, and the Nifty50 index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at 10,550.15. At 9:36 am, the 30-share Sensex traded at 35,121.57, up 256.47 points or 0.74 per cent and the broader Nifty50 was at 10,577.45, with a gain of 64.95 points or 0.74 per cent. Thirty seven out of 50 Nifty stocks traded with gains.

At the time of writing this report, the Sensex had registered an intraday high of 35,132.57 and the Nifty of 10,583.75.

IndusInd Bank (up 2.46 per cent) was the top Nifty gainer after it reported 4.6 per cent rise in second-quarter profit at Rs 920 crore. Mahindra and Mahindra, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance and UltraTech Cement gained between 1.80 and 2.20 per cent.

Ahead of its second quarter earnings, Infosys (up 0.69 per cent) traded flat.

All sectoral indices on the NSE, barring the Nifty IT - the index of IT stocks - traded with gains, led by auto and banking stocks.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks rose modestly on Tuesday, gaining a firmer footing after a week of heavy losses, although increasing tensions between Saudi Arabia and the West have fanned geopolitical concerns and capped gains. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan nudged up 0.25 per cent, crawling away from a 19-month trough touched on Thursday, according to a report by news agency Reuters.

On Monday, the Sensex had ended 131.52 points or 0.38 per cent higher at 34,865.10 and the Nifty50 had settled at 10,512.50, up 40 points or 0.38 per cent. In the previous session, foreign portfolio investors and domestic institutional investors were net buyers as they purchased equities worth Rs 67.86 crore and Rs 294.78 crore respectively, according to provisional NSE data.

Trade deficit narrowed to $13.98 billion in September from $17.4 billion in August, according to official data released on Monday. This was the lowest figure in five months. Solid growth in manufacturing exports, which rose 12.54 per cent in the first six months in dollar terms year-on-year, cancelled out a rising oil import bill. September imports were up 10.45 per cent year-on-year. (With Reuters inputs)