Sensex Rises 150 Points; Banking, IT Stocks Lead Gains

Sensex and Nifty moved higher on Tuesday, tracking gains in Asian markets. The Sensex gained nearly 175 points while Nifty reclaimed 8,100 levels, before paring some gains. Also, lifting the sentiment, growth in output of the country's eight core sectors grew 3.2 per cent year-on-year in September, compared to 2.6 per cent in August.

Here are top 10 developments:

1) Gains were broad-based with all the sectoral indices trading in the positive territory.

2) IT, metal, banking and healthcare stocks outperformed. Vedanta, Hindalco, Infosys, PNB, and Tata Steel were among major Nifty gainers. International ratings agency Moody's on Monday upgraded India's banking system to 'stable' from 'negative' due to an improvement in operating environment for banks.

3) Power stocks also perked up with NTPC rising nearly 3 per cent to be the biggest Nifty gainer.

4) L&T continued its losing streak with the stock trading 0.25 per cent lower. Asian Paints, Lupin, Bharti Airtel were also among the losers among the Nifty stocks.

5) Earnings impact: United Spirits gained over 5 per cent on strong margin expansion in the September.

6) Tech Mahindra edged lower while DLF gained nearly 2 per cent ahead of their earnings announcement later in the day.

6) Kunal Bothra of LKP Securities said that Nifty could rebound to 8,100-8150 levels after suffering losses in the past six sessions.

7) Analysts remain cautious on the near-term outlook for Nifty, saying that it would take direction from the outcome of the Bihar elections.

8) Analysts would be closely watching the buying activity from foreign institutional investors after the US Fed last week signaled the possibility of a rate hike in December. FIIs sold Indian shares worth Rs 272 crore (net) on Monday in the cash market.

9) However, domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 145 crore on Monday, providing some support for the markets.

10) Asian share markets were mostly higher today following an overnight rally on the Wall Street. The Nasdaq rose 1.45 per cent to its highest close since 2000.