Sensex, Nifty Gain For Third Session In A Row Led By IT Stocks

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes gained for third session in a row on Tuesday as a slowdown in daily coronavirus cases raised hopes that the government will further ease restrictions. The Sensex rose as much as 300 points and Nifty touched an intraday high of 11,949. HDFC Bank, Infosys, HCL Technologies, TCS and Asian Paints were among the top movers in the Sensex.

The Sensex ended 113 points or 0.28 per cent higher at 40,544 and Nifty advanced 24 points or 0.2 per cent to close at 11,897.

COVID-19 cases in India are decreasing after a peak in mid-September, with the world's second-worst affected country reporting a near three-month low of 46,790 new infections in the last 24 hours.

"Declines in daily COVID-19 cases and deaths has given some comfort that there could be further relaxations to the economy," said Siddharth Purohit, an analyst at SMC Institutional Equities told news agency Reuters.

Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Realty index's over 4 per cent gain. Information Technology, media, auto and pharma shares also witnessed buying interest.

On the other hand, Nifty PSU Bank, FMCG and metal shares witnessed selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares witnessed buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose 0.65 per cent and 0.41 per cent each respectively.

HCL Technologies was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4.3 per cent to close at Rs 881. Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, JSW Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, TCS and UltraTech Cement also rose between 1-3 per cent.

On the flipside, Britannia Industries fell 6 per cent to close at Rs 3,553 a day after company reported that its profit rose 23 per cent to Rs 498 crore however, its revenues at Rs 3,354 crore was below Reuters estimates.

ONGC, GAIL India, Indian Oil, UPL, Power Grid, Hindalco, NTPC, Reliance Industries, Coal India and Tata Steel were also among the losers.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,377 shares ended higher while 1,306 closed lower on the BSE.