Market halts 9-day losing streak, Sensex jumps 227 points

Indian equities on Tuesday reversed their nine-session losing streak, with the BSE Sensex recovering over 227 points and the NSE Nifty regaining nearly 74 points, helped by gains in pharma, banking and energy stocks.

Top gainers in early session were Vedanta, Sun Pharma, RIL, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Bharti Airtel, PowerGrid rising up to 2.85 per cent.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, ONGC, Infosys, HCL Tech, HDFC, Coal India, Yes Bank, TCS, Bajaj Finance, NTPC, Axis Bank, were among the top losers, shedding up to 1.74 per cent.

Sensex heavyweights Reliance Industries, ITC and SBI were mainly responsible for the recovery.

In percentage terms, however, Sun Pharma topped the chart with 5.87 per cent. Other major gainers include Bharti Airtel, Vedanta, Indusind Bank, SBI and RIL—rising as much as 5.40 per cent.

On the flip side, TCS, HCL Tech, Bjaja Finance, Bajaj Auto and Infosys were among the top losers on the 30-share index.

The gauge started off the session on a slightly positive note at 37,146.58 against the previous close of 37,090.82. Intra-day, the index touched a high of 37,572.70 and a low of 36,956.10. It finally settled the day at 37,318.53, gaining 227.71 points or 0.61 per cent.

Similarly, the NSE gauge Nifty opened higher at 11,151.65 and touched a high of 11,294.75 and low of 11,108.30 during the session. It finally ended at 11,222.05, 73.85 points or 0.66 per cent higher.

On Monday, Indian bourses had registered losses for the ninth consecutive session.

In the last nine sessions, the Sensex had lost 1,940.73 points and the Nifty has given away nearly 600 points.

The Tuesday’s trade, mainly the first half of the session, was marked by intense volatility as investors appeared cautious weighing a host of headwinds like concerns on macro-economic front, US-China trade war tensions and uncertainty over election outcome.

In recent months, the country’s financial system has been grappling with multiple woes in the wake of the turmoil at diversified IL&FS group as well as default by some other large entities.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee staged a mild recovery, trading 13 paise higher at 70.38 against the US dollar in intra-day.

In Asia, all leading bourses witnessed mild to heavy sell-offs on Tuesday after US-China trade war further intensified.

Brent Futures, global crude oil benchmark, traded higher at USD 70.89 per barrel, up 0.94 per cent, on concerns about supply disruptions in view of geo-political tensions in the crucial oil producing region of the Middle East.

(With inputs from PTI)