Sensex climbs 483 pts, Nifty ends above 21,700; banking, healthcare stocks lead gains

Benchmark indices ended higher on Tuesday led by gains in banking and healthcare stocks. Sensex rose 483 points to 71,555 and Nifty gained 127 pts to 21,743. BSE investor wealth climbed to Rs 380.77 lakh crore. Banking and healthcare shares were the top sectoral gainers with their indices rising 736 points and 258 points, respectively on BSE. On the other hand, the BSE metal index slumped 389 pts to end at 26,608.

BSE midcap and small cap indices gained 235 pts and 78 pts, respectively. However, market breadth was negative with 1716 stocks ending higher against 2136 stocks falling on BSE. 90 shares were unchanged.

The Nifty Bank index ended 620 points or 1.38% higher at 45,502 today.

Commenting on the Bank Nifty, Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities said, "The bulls made a strong comeback, defending the critical support level of 44,800, which now serves as a cushion for further upside. The index remains in a buy mode as long as the mentioned support holds, and any dips should be utilized to add long positions. The immediate resistance on the upside is situated at 46,000, where the highest open interest is built up on the call side, indicating a potential target for the bullish momentum."

UltraTech Cement, M&M, Titan, Tata Motors  and ITC were the only Sensex losers, falling up to 1.03 per cent. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Wipro, NTPC and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 2.46% on Tuesday. Of 30 Sensex stocks, 25 scrips ended in the green.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said, "The domestic market largely recovered from yesterday's losses, driven by gains in the banking sector. Improved sentiment stemmed from a decline in domestic inflation, which is expected to boost rural demand. Despite this, broader markets continued to underperform compared to frontline indices due to high valuations. However, investors remained cautious ahead of U.S. inflation data, anticipating a moderation, pivotal for the Fed's interest rate trajectory."

Previous session

Benchmark indices ended lower on Monday led by losses in capital goods, oil and gas and metal stocks. Sensex slumped 523 points to 71,072 and Nifty lost 166 pts to 21,616.  Capital goods, oil and gas and metal stocks shares were the top sectoral losers with their indices falling 1258 points, 716 points, and 756 pts, respectively on BSE.

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