Market benchmarks clawed back some lost ground on Tuesday after two days of heavy declines as investors made a cautious return to energy, IT and finance stocks amid supportive global cues.
A sharp recovery in the rupee further fuelled the rebound, traders said.
The 30-share BSE Sensex opened strong and rallied to 56,900, before paring some gains to close at 56,319.01, up 497 points or 0.89%.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty advanced 156.65 points or 0.94% to 16,770.85. HCL Tech was the top performer in the Sensex pack, spurting 3.91%, followed by Wipro, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Titan and Sun Pharma.
On the other hand, PowerGird, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, SBI, M&M, Kotak Bank and HDFC closed with losses of up to 1.50%.
The market breadth was in favour of the bulls, with 23 advances compared to seven declines.
“Indian market is attempting to recover from yesterday’s heavy selloff, domestic indices staged a gap-up opening on bargain hunting supported by positive sentiments across global markets.
“Although concerns surrounding the impact of Omicron and FII selling still lingers, investors are trading cautiously and are optimistic. Gains in IT, commodities and metal stocks lifted the indices higher,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Arijit Malakar, Head Research (Retail), Ashika Stock Broking, said the market is expected to remain weak amid concerns over the new Omicron strain which could derail the global economic recovery and sooner-than-expected interest rate hikes in developed economies.
“The market is now sell on rise market as the sustained foreign fund outflows and renewed concerns around Omicron variant of coronavirus may trigger profit taking at higher levels,” he noted.
All sectoral indices ended on a positive note, with BSE metal, consumer durables, basic materials, telecom, teck and IT indices climbing up to 2.99%. Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices rose up to 1.43%.
World stocks rebounded from the recent Omicron-triggered hammering even as investors monitored updates on the new strain.
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended with gains. Stock exchanges in Europe were also trading on a positive note in mid-session deals.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.07% to $ 71.47 per barrel. The rupee surged by 31 paise to close at Rs 75.59 against the US dollar on Tuesday as positive domestic equities and a weak American currency in the overseas markets boosted investor sentiment.
Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital market on Monday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 3,565.36 crore, according to exchange data.