Stock Market Closing Bell: Sensex Rises 440 Points, Nifty Reclaims 24,000; Realty, FMCG Shine

Indian benchmark equity indices traded firmly higher on Tuesday afternoon, with the BSE Sensex gaining nearly 444 points and the Nifty 50 reclaiming the crucial 24,000 mark. Strong buying in FMCG, realty, banking and auto stocks lifted market sentiment, even as IT shares remained under pressure.

At around 3:31 pm IST, the BSE Sensex was up 443.97 points, or 0.58%, at 76,922.64. The index touched an intraday high of 77,110.08 after opening at 76,545.21. Meanwhile, the Nifty 50 advanced 140.10 points, or 0.59%, to 24,005.85, hitting a day’s high of 24,049.90.

Among the Sensex gainers, Eternal led the rally with a 5.89% jump, followed by Asian Paints (3.13%), Hindustan Unilever (2.74%), Mahindra & Mahindra (2.05%), Adani Ports (1.96%), UltraTech

Cement (1.81%) and Maruti Suzuki (1.69%). Banking stocks also traded higher, with State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Finserv posting healthy gains. Reliance Industries rose over 1%, adding further support to the benchmarks.

However, the rally was capped by weakness in information technology stocks. HCLTech fell 3.45%, while Tech Mahindra declined 3.22% and TCS slipped 2.51%. Infosys also traded lower by 1.41%, reflecting continued selling pressure in the IT sector.

Broader markets remained positive, with the Nifty 100, Nifty 200, Nifty Midcap 50 and Nifty Smallcap 100 all trading in the green.

Among sectoral indices, Nifty Realty emerged as the top performer, rising 3.58%, followed by Nifty FMCG (2.08%), Nifty Media (2.07%), Nifty Auto (1.15%) and Nifty PSU Bank (0.99%). On the other hand, Nifty IT declined 2.01%, while Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma also traded in negative territory.