Indian stock indices extend gains; Sensex, Nifty rise 0.5 pc each

Indian stock market indices extended their gains from the previous session and traded in the green on Tuesday.

"Amid evidence of fresh infections in the second-largest economy, Asian markets ended mainly lower on Monday. However, late purchasing helped the Indian stock market to end higher (on Monday)," said Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS, Hem Securities.

At 9.25 a.m. Tuesday, Sensex traded at 53,508.32 points, up 273.55 points, up 0.51 per cent, whereas Nifty traded at 15,916.60 points, up 81.25 points or 0.51 per cent.

Among the individual stocks, Tata Motors, Power Grid Corporation of India, ONGC, Bajaj Finserv, and Adani Ports were the top five gainers among the Nifty 50 companies, while Britannia, Hero Motocorp, Bajaj Auto, Divis Labs, and ITC the top five losers, National Stock Exchange data showed.

Market volatility may be caused by the prevailing worries about the persistent selling of funds by foreign investors, Nigam said.

Foreign portfolio investors have been persistently selling equities in the Indian markets for the past nine-to-ten months due to various reasons, including tightening of monetary policy, rising current account deficit on account of depreciation of rupee, rising dollar and bond yields in the US.

They typically prefer advanced economies in times of sharp volatility and uncertainty in the overall financial markets.

So far in 2022, they have sold equities worth Rs 220,476 crore in India, NSDL data showed. During the same period, Sensex and Nifty declined around 10 per cent each.

On Tuesday, other major Asian stocks too rose amid speculations that the US administration could scrap some Trump-era tariffs on Chinese consumer goods, said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC securities.

(ANI)

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