Indian equity benchmarks snapped their five-day losing streak on Tuesday paced by gains in metal, real estate, oil & gas and auto stocks. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening wherein the Sensex surged over 550 points and Nifty 50 index moved above 14,850. However, indices came off their highs in afternoon trading as investors seemingly took some profits off the table.
The Sensex ended 7 points higher at 49,751 and Nifty 50 index rose 32 points to settle at 14,708.
Metal stocks outperformed the benchmarks for second straight session riding on surge in copper prices in international markets. Oil marketing companies also witnessed buying interest tracking higher crude oil prices.
On the flipside, banking, financial services and telecom shares witnessed selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares outperformed larger peers as S&P BSE MidCap index rose 1 per cent and SmallCap 100 index advanced 0.8 per cent.
Reliance Industries was top mover in the Sensex, the stock added 50 points to the Sensex. The stock rose as much as 2 per cent after the company said it plans to get approvals to hive off its oil-to-chemicals business by September quarter of next fiscal year.
Tata Group shares staged strong performance as Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals rose between 3-6 per cent.
ONGC, UPL, GAIL India, BPCL and Larsen & Toubro were among the top Nifty gainers.
On the other hand, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Adani Ports, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Divi’s Labs, HDFC Bank, HCL Technologies and Wipro were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,690 shares ended higher while 1,232 closed lower on the BSE.