By Siddhant Mishra
The benchmark indices gained on Tuesday, as retail inflation coming in at 5.88% — an 11-month low and below the Reserve Bank of India’s tolerance level — cheered the Street.
IT and financials led the gains, with IndusInd Bank gaining 2.46%, Bajaj Finance rising 1.75%, and SBI, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, as well as the HDFC twins, all closing in the green. Infosys rose 1.65% and TCS 1.44%, while HCL, Tech Mahindra and Wipro also ended the session with gains.
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However, consumer stocks were laggards, with HUL and Nestle both ending in the red.
A total of 1,860 stocks advanced on the BSE, with 1,671 stocks declining.
IndusInd was the leader in the broader market too, rising 2.13% on the NSE, while Bajaj Finance followed suit, up 2.05%. IT and banking stocks ended the session with gains. However, consumer and metals were the major laggards even as the biggest loser was Apollo Hospitals, which shed 1.27%.
Among sectoral indices, the Bank Nifty closed 0.54% up at 43,946.55, while the Nifty IT and financial indices also closed with gains.
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“Markets were on a firm footing on the back of short-covering, as retail inflation easing to an 11-month low raised hopes that the rate hike regime could slow down and take a pause. Overnight gains in the US markets further aided the local market sentiment, which had slipped into a range-bound mode over the past few sessions. Technically, the market not only reclaimed the 20-day SMA (simple moving average) level, but also closed above the same, which is broadly positive,” said Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research (Retail), Kotak Securities.
Both DIIs and FIIs were net buyers, to the tune of ₹36.75 crore and ₹619.92 crore, respectively.
Crude oil was also trading close to $80 a barrel earlier in the day, on optimism over China relaxing its Covid restrictions.
Among Asian indices, the Hang Seng was up 0.68%, the Nikkei gained 0.4%, and the Straits Times index gained almost 1%. The Shanghai Composite edge down by 0.9%, while the KOSPI also lost 0.03%.