Stock Market Updates: The domestic equity markets opened in the green on Tuesday, tracking positive global cues amid a pause in Iran-Israel hostilities and gains across financial, realty and broader market stocks.
As of 9:16 am, the Nifty 50 rose 0.44% to 23,224, while the BSE Sensex advanced 337 points, or 0.46%, to 73,862 in early trade.
Among the frontline indices, Nifty Bank gained 0.64% to 54,407, while Nifty Financial Services climbed 0.60% to 24,955. Broader markets outperformed the benchmarks, with the Nifty Midcap 100 rising 0.78%, Nifty Midcap 50 gaining 0.74%, and Nifty Smallcap 100 advancing 0.65%.
Sectorally, Nifty Realty emerged as the top gainer, rising 1%, followed by Nifty Midsmall Financial Services and Nifty Financial Services Ex-Bank, which gained 1% and 0.84%, respectively. Nifty Auto was up 0.64%, while Nifty Pharma and Nifty PSU Bank added around 0.5% each. Nifty IT traded marginally higher, gaining 0.19%.
Market sentiment was aided by a decline in volatility, with India VIX falling 3.15% to 16.49. On the stock-specific front, IndusInd Bank, Trent, Bajaj Finance, Eternal, Axis Bank and Bharti Airtel were among the top gainers on the Sensex, while Tata Steel was the only major laggard in early trade.
V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments, said the rebound in technology stocks on the Nasdaq has lifted sentiment in Asian chip stocks, indicating that the artificial intelligence-driven trade remains intact, though at a slower pace.
“The rebound in tech stocks in Nasdaq has led to rebound in chip stocks in South Korea and Taiwan. So, the AI trade continues though at subdued pace. The decline in Brent crude to below $94 is a positive. There is no certainty that the fragile peace in the conflict between Iran and Israel will hold,” he said.
He added that a US federal judge striking down President Donald Trump’s H-1B visa fee is a mild positive for Indian IT companies.
Among IT stocks, Wipro rose 1.29 per cent to trade at Rs 184.1 apiece on the NSE in the early trade, while TCS was up by 0.40 per cent at Rs 2,160 apiece. However, Infosys was trading down by 0.93 per cent at Rs 1,176 apiece on the NSE.
On the domestic market outlook, Vijayakumar said foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continue to hold significant short positions, which could keep volatility elevated, particularly on weekly expiry day.
“The FIIs’ short position in the market is huge and, therefore, expect volatility today since the weekly expiry may lead to high volumes. The bulls are too weak to stage a strong comeback and the bears are strong enough to press selling on rises. The sustained selling by FIIs shows no sign of fatigue,” he said.
Despite near-term volatility, he remains constructive on banking stocks. “Large-cap valuations are fair and, in segments like banking, attractive mainly due to FII selling. This segment offers a good buying opportunity for investors with a two-to-three-year time horizon. The risk-reward ratio is favourable for buyers.”
He also highlighted strong traction in mid- and small-cap stocks, supported by healthy fourth-quarter earnings and robust growth prospects.
The Indian rupee on Tuesday also gained 20 paise to open at 95.41 against the US dollar, supported by lower crude oil prices following a pause in Iran-Israel hostilities, which in turn pressured the dollar. The local currency had closed at 95.61 against the greenback in the previous session on Monday.
India has also reported a current account surplus of $7.1 billion, or 0.7 per cent of GDP, in the January-March quarter of 2025-26, according to the Reserve Bank data released on Monday. The surplus stood at $13.7 billion, or 1.4 per cent of GDP, in the fourth quarter of 2024-25. However, for the entire fiscal year, the current account deficit stood at $25.2 billion, or 0.6 per cent of GDP, compared to $22.9 billion, or 0.6 per cent of GDP, during 2024-25.
Global Cues
Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday, with tech shares leading gains after Wall Street recovered some of its sell-off from last week. Oil prices fell back after surging on Monday as fighting flared between Israel and Iran, threatening to pull the region back into full-scale war.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 1% to 64,654.22. In South Korea, the Kospi jumped 3.5% to 7,743.65, after Monday’s loss of more than 8%. SK Hynix, which on Monday announced plans to partner with Nvidia in building data centres, jumped 7.7%. Samsung Electronics was up 3.6%.
Taiwan’s Taiex advanced 2.2% on gains for tech companies like computer chip giant TSMC. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.4% to 24,553.93 and the Shanghai Composite index added 0.3% to 3,970.17.
On Wall Street on Monday, the S&P 500 added 0.3%, coming off a 2.6% drop Friday that was its worst since October. It closed at 7,405.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.9%.
