Sensex gains 400 points, Nifty above 18,000 despite weak Asian cues

Amid mixed cues from Asian markets after China's weak fourth-quarter economic data, Indian equity market opened flat on Tuesday. Benchmark indices soon extended gains led by HUL and RIL.

The BSE Sensex was trading 403 points or 0.64% higher at 60,489 while Nifty50 was at 18,007, up 110 points or 0.63% at around 10.10 am.

In the Sensex pack, HUL and HCL Tech were the top gainers, rising about 1% each. L&T, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Reliance, NTPC, Infosys and Bharti Airtel also opened with gains.

However, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, M&M, Titan, IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank opened with losses.

Sectorally, the Nifty PSU Bank rose 0.38% and Nifty IT surged 0.33%. While Nifty Metal and Nifty Financial Services opened lower. In the broader market, Nifty Smallcap50 fell 0.05% and Nifty Midcap50 declined 0.07%.

“The dominant trend impacting the near-term texture of the market is the sustained selling by FIIs for the eleventh time this month. The simple logic behind sustained FII selling is that India is the only large market where FIIs are still sitting on good profits after the disastrous 2022 performance in most global markets,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services said.

“The sustained FII selling has turned the near-term structure of the market weak. The best investment strategy in the present weak market would be to systematically buy high-quality large-caps in performing sectors like banking, capital goods, telecom and construction-related segments,” Vijayakumar added.

Asian Markets
Many Asia shares slipped on Tuesday after Beijing released weak fourth-quarter economic data, although investors' expectations for a strong China rebound remained high even as the global economy edges closer to recession.

MSCI's gauge of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan was down 0.34%, widening morning losses. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.6% while China's benchmark CSI300 Index was down 0.11%.

Currency Watch
The Indian rupee fell by 31 paise to 81.89 against the US dollar in early trade.

The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, increased 0.16% to 102.37 level.

Crude Price
Oil prices fell in early trade on Tuesday as recession fears dominated headlines out of the World Economic Forum's meeting in Davos, draining optimism that stoked the market last week on prospects of a fuel demand recovery in top oil importer China.

Brent crude futures were down 38 cents, or 0.5%, at $84.08, extending a 1% loss in the previous session.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures slid $1.16, or 1.5%, to $78.70 from Friday's close. There was no settlement on Monday due to a U.S. holiday for Martin Luther King Day.

(With inputs from agencies)

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