The benchmark BSE Sensex ended higher by nearly 80 points on Tuesday due to sustained buying by domestic institutional investors and positive Asian cues.
Uninterrupted buying by domestic financial institutions and widening of exposure by retail investors ahead of second quarter earnings season amid a firm trend in the Asian markets buoyed the domestic sentiment.
Among BSE sectoral indices, power index gained the most by 0.85 per cent, followed by infrastructure 0.76 per cent, IT 0.71 per cent and TECk 0.62 per cent. On the other hand, realty index was down 0.97 per cent and FMCG 0.24 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Lupin (+1.99%), PowerGrid (+1.86%), Axis Bank (+1.74%), Reliance (+1.52%) and Coal India (+1.44%), while the major losers were ICICI Bank (-0.96%), Tata Steel (-0.93%), HUL (-0.83%), ITC (-0.82%) and Sun Pharma (-0.5%).
Earnings season
Software bellwether Tata Consultancy Services Ltd will report its results on Thursday and index heavyweight Reliance Industries on Friday.
The July-September earnings will be viewed as a gauge to determine whether the current high valuations hold ground after a record-setting rally this year.
“Going ahead, earnings revival is absolutely critical for the current market valuations to sustain. Any disappointment can impact market sentiment given that second quarters are generally cyclical and could be impacted by factors like monsoon,” said Teena Virmani, vice president, Kotak Securities.
Asian shares gained on Tuesday, shrugging off modest losses on Wall Street while expectations of a US interest rate increase this year continued to underpin the dollar.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia–Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.4 per cent in early trading.
Wall Street fell from record levels on Monday as gains in Microsoft and other technology stocks failed to offset a drop in General Electric and a slide in healthcare stocks.
The S&P healthcare index moved 0.67 per cent lower, weighed by a 3.61-per cent slide in Medtronic after the medical device maker warned that its quarterly profit would be impacted after Hurricane Maria hit its operations in Puerto Rico.