Mumbai, May 14
Benchmark Sensex climbed 328 points while Nifty closed above the 22,200 level on Tuesday as stock markets continued the winning march for the third straight day on the back of gains in index major Reliance Industries and positive inflation data.Rising for the third day, BSE Sensex rose by 328.48 points, or 0.45 per cent, to settle at 73,104.61.
The 30-share index rallied 510.13 points, or 0.70 per cent, to touch a high of 73,286.26 in day trade. As many as 20 Sensex stocks ended with gains while 10 declined.The broader Nifty of NSE rose by 113.80 points, or 0.51 per cent, to settle at 22,217.85 with 36 of its constituents ending in the green and 14 in the red.Gains were led by metal and auto shares while FMCG and pharma shares declined due to profit taking, analysts said.From the Sensex basket, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, JSW Steel, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, UltraTech Cement, State Bank of India, Reliance Industries, and Maruti were the major gainers.Nestle, Tata Consultancy Services, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, ITC, and Asian Paints were among the laggards.Retail inflation eased to an 11-month low of 4.83 per cent in April as prices of some kitchen items declined, though overall food basket firmed up marginally, according to government data.“The domestic market has sustained its recovery path from recent lows, aided by a moderation in India’s CPI and favourable signals from its Asian peers,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services. Volatility and range-bound trading are likely to persist in the near term, given the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the low turnout, Nair added.In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge climbed 1.79 per cent and midcap index advanced 1.14 per cent.Among the indices, utilities soared 2.80 per cent, power (2.51 per cent), industrials (2.40 per cent), telecommunication (2.27 per cent), capital goods (2.11 per cent), commodities (1.87 per cent), services (1.78 per cent), energy (1.52 per cent) and realty (1.03 per cent).“Nifty continued to gain for the third consecutive session on Tuesday after rising through the day with minimal corrections. Global equities were mixed in muted trading Tuesday as investors waited for producer prices data for cues on inflation in the world’s largest economy and ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speech later in the day,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities. Meanwhile, official data released on Tuesday showed wholesale inflation rose to a 13-month high of 1.26 per cent in April fuelled by rising prices of food articles, especially vegetables.In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo settled higher while Shanghai and Hong Kong ended lower. European markets were trading mixed. Wall Street ended on a mixed note on Monday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.17 per cent to USD 83.22 a barrel. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 4,498.92 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
