Sensex, Nifty climb in early trade on buying in IT, bank stocks

MUMBAI: Equity benchmark indices rallied in early trade on Tuesday amid buying in IT and bank stocks along with a sharp cut in Brent crude oil prices.

The BSE Sensex climbed 327.39 points to 82,300.44 in early trade. The NSE Nifty went up by 84.1 points to 25,212.05.

From the 30 Sensex firms, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, Titan, Bajaj Finance, HCL Technologies and ICICI Bank were among the major gainers.

IT services major HCL Technologies (HCLTech) on Monday reported a 10.51 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,235 crore in the July-September quarter of FY25, as the company raised the lower band of its growth guidance on the back of better-than-expected performance.

From the blue-chip pack, Tata Steel, Power Grid, Axis Bank, JSW Steel, Reliance and NTPC were the laggards.

Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company, on Monday reported a 5 per cent fall in the July-September quarter net profit as weak oil refining and petrochemical business hurt operational performance.

"The sharp cut in Brent crude by 3 per cent is a macro positive for India, but CPI inflation for September coming worse-than- expected at 5.49 per cent is a concern...," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Soaring vegetable prices pushed the retail inflation rate to a nine-month high of 5.49 per cent in September, according to government data released on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dropped 2.98 per cent to USD 75.15 a barrel.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo were quoting in the positive territory while Shanghai and Hong Kong traded lower.

The US markets ended higher on Monday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,731.59 crore on Monday, according to exchange data. However, Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought equities worth Rs 2,278.09 crore.

"Even though FIIs continue to sell, the intensity of their selling has come down reducing the pressure on largecaps," Vijayakumar added.

The BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 591.69 points or 0.73 per cent to settle at 81,973.05 on Monday. The Nifty climbed 163.70 points or 0.66 per cent to 25,127.95.

"The Nifty continues to show resilience, with bullish momentum supported by positive global market trends and strong Q2 earnings from HCL Tech," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.