Sensex, Nifty rise for 4th straight session

After a tepid start, the Indian equity indices closed higher for the fourth straight day in a volatile market on Tuesday, led by Infosys, ITC, and private banking stocks.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex surged 123 points or 0.20% to settle at 62,969. The broader NSE Nifty rose 35 points or 0.19% to end at 18,634.

From the Sensex pack, ITC, Bajaj Finserv, Kotak Bank, and Bajaj Finance were the top gainers, rising 1-2%. Axis Bank, HCL Tech, Wipro, UltraTech Cement, and Maruti also closed with gains. On the flip side, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Nestle, L&T, and SBI closed with losses.

Shares of RVNL ended with a 5% lower circuit after the railway PSU firm reported a decline in net profit in Q4. Meanwhile, Jubilant Pharmova closed over 7% after the firm's net loss widened sequentially to Rs 98 crore in the March quarter.

Sectorally, Nifty FMCG rose 0.59% and Nifty Media gained 0.68%. Whereas, Nifty Auto and Nifty Metal also closed lower. In the broader market, Nifty Midcap100 gained 0.25%, while Smallcap100 rose 0.22%.

The market breadth was skewed in the favour of the bears. About 1,795 stocks declined, 1,700 gained, and 119 remained unchanged on the BSE.

Experts View
"The domestic market continued its rally as recent Q4 results indicated improvement in demand. Further, expectations of a normal monsoon and a drop in international commodity prices support a rise in the margin profile," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

The underlying trend is strong, supported by strong liquidity, the negative slope of the interest yield, and the forecast of strong QoQ growth in Q4 FY23 GDP vs. 4.4% in Q3, Nair added. Jatin Gedia, Technical Research Analyst at Sharekhan, said, "18705 – 18735 shall act as the immediate hurdle zone while 18570 – 18500 is the crucial support zone from a short-term perspective."

Asian Markets
Asian stocks lost early gains on Tuesday as relief that a possible default by the US government had been averted gave way to concern that the deal to suspend its debt ceiling was a compromise that would have negative consequences.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 0.31% at the open but tumbled to be down 0.82% later in the session, extending its recent slide to a new low this year. China's CSI300 Index was down 1.16%.