Sensex surges over 200 pts in early trade; Nifty tops 14,700

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Market benchmark Sensex jumped over 200 points in early trade on Tuesday, tracking gains in index majors ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank amid a mixed trend in global equities. The 30-share BSE index rose 242.57 points or 0.50 per cent to 48,961.09 in initial deals.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 78.05 points or 0.53 per cent to 14,712.20. ONGC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, gaining around 2 per cent, followed by Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance and NTPC. On the other hand, Titan, HUL, Reliance Industries, PowerGrid, Sun Pharma and Infosys were among the laggards.

In the previous session, Sensex finished 63.84 points or 0.13 per cent lower at 48,718.52, and Nifty closed 3.05 points or 0.02 per cent higher at 14,634.15. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,289.46 crore on Monday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares worth Rs 552.92 crore, according to provisional exchange data.

"This bull market, which has been climbing many walls of worries, is likely to remain resilient supported by positive news on the COVID front,¿ said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. He noted that the latest data indicates plateauing of the COVID curve and a steady decline in COVID numbers in 13 states including Maharashtra. Daily numbers after peaking at 4.02 lakh on May 1, have been steadily declining and now stand near 3.5 lakh.

"This can give further support to the 'hope trade' that is currently on, despite the grim health crisis. Q4 results continue to be good across sectors. The FIIs continue to be on the sell side but this is being neutralised by DII buying. IT, pharma, telecom are safe sectors in the context of the lockdowns during the second wave," he added.

Active COVID-19 cases in India rose to 34,47,133 against 34,13,642 on Monday, according to a Health Ministry update this morning. Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals, while Seoul was in the red. Stock exchanges in Shanghai and Tokyo were closed for holidays. Equities on Wall Street ended on a mixed note in overnight trade. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading flat at USD 67.56 per barrel.

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