Infosys, HDFC, Reliance Fuel Over 400 Point Gain In Sensex; Nifty Above 17,200

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Tuesday fuelled by gains in index heavyweights like Infosys, HDFC, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance and Tata Consultancy Services amid positive global cues. The Sensex rose as much as 411 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 17,204. Global stock markets rose on Monday and oil prices eased as investors hailed strong U.S. holiday season sales and some grew less fearful about economic damage from the Omicron variant of COVID-19, news agency Reuters reported.

Wall Street's main stock indexes notched their fourth straight session of gains, after reports last week that the highly infectious Omicron variant may not be as deadly as earlier types of COVID-19.

Back home, buying was visible across the board as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Information Technology index's 1 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Financial Services, Media, PSU Bank, Private Bank, Realty, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas indices also rose between 0.6-1 per cent.

Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.65 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 1 per cent.

ONGC was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 1.7 per cent to Rs 140. Asian Paints, Grasim Industries, HCL Technologies, Adani Ports, Power Grid, Eicher Motors, Infosys, Coal India, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra and Indian Oil also rose between 1-1.6 per cent.

On the flipside, Dr Reddy's Labs, Cipla, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto were among the notables losers.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,217 shares were advancing while 439 were declining on the BSE.