Equity markets rally in early trade amid sustained buying  

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty were trading in the positive territory in early trade on Tuesday, extending their winning momentum to the fourth day running, helped by a rally in blue-chip stocks and continuous buying by domestic institutional investors.

The 30-share BSE Sensex went up by 183.97 points to 81,974.09 in early trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 62.05 points to 25,139.70.

From the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv, NTPC, Adani Ports and UltraTech Cement were among the major gainers.

However, Trent, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index traded in positive territory. Markets in China, South Korea were closed for a holiday.

US markets ended mostly higher.

“Liquidity tailwinds, global market resilience, and a dovish stance from central banks are fuelling the rally, with record highs on Nasdaq and S&P 500 boosting sentiment,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.31 per cent to USD 65.67 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 313.77 crore on Monday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 5,036.39 crore, according to exchange data.

“The ongoing mild rally in the market has the potential to gain momentum. The FII selling in India is slowly declining since the sharp appreciation in other markets has pushed up their valuations and the valuation differential between India and other markets has come down.”

“Yesterday FII selling figure was only Rs 313 crore and this was totally eclipsed by the massive DII buying of Rs 5,036 crore. The steady inflows into mutual funds, particularly the SIP inflows, is a strong support to the market,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

On Monday, the Sensex jumped 582.95 points or 0.72 per cent to settle at 81,790.12, and the Nifty surged 183.40 points or 0.74 per cent to 25,077.65.