Stock market today: BSE Sensex and Nifty50, the Indian equity benchmark indices, surged in afternoon trade after a volatile morning session, and hit fresh lifetime highs. While BSE Sensex crossed 81,000 for the first time, Nifty50 went above 24,800. BSE Sensex closed the day at 81,343.46, up 627 points or 0.78%. Nifty50 ended the day at 24,800.85, up 188 points or 0.76%.
The Indian equity market gains were driven by gains in information technology stocks ahead of Infosys' quarterly results.
The top BSE Sensex gainers at this hour were TCS, Bajaj Finance, M&M, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, and HCL Tech, The top BSE losers were Ultratech Cement, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, Adani Ports and Power Grid.
The Indian rupee weakened by 0.08% against the U.S. dollar, quoted at 83.65 per dollar, due to corporate outflows and dollar bids from oil companies. The benchmark 10-year bond was quoted at 100.93 rupees, with the yield steady at 6.9646%, ahead of Friday's debt supply, including the benchmark paper.
"With the nearing of a major event – Union Budget, we expect anxiety to increase in the market. Along with this Q1FY25 earnings results of prominent companies will drive the stock-specific action," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal.
Nagaraj Shetti of HDFC Securities noted that the near-term uptrend of Nifty remains intact, and although Nifty is consolidating at higher levels, there is no confirmation of any significant reversal pattern forming at the highs. He expects Nifty to potentially reach 24,900 levels in the coming week, with immediate support at 24,450 levels.
Several stocks are in the F&O ban period today, including GMR Infra, Hindustan Copper, PEL, GNFC, Chambal Fertilisers, Balrampur Chini Mills, RBL Bank, and Vedanta.
Foreign portfolio investors turned net buyers, purchasing shares worth Rs 1,271 crore on Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 529 crore. The net long position of FIIs reduced slightly from Rs 3.47 lakh crore on Friday to Rs 3.47 lakh crore on Tuesday.
Infosys, Tata Technologies, Polycab, and 33 other companies are set to announce their first quarter results on Thursday.