Markets surge in early trade on persistent foreign fund inflows

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty surged in early trade on Tuesday amid persistent foreign fund inflows and easing tariff concerns.

The 30-share BSE benchmark gauge jumped 442.94 points to 80,661.31 in early trade. The NSE Nifty rallied 129.15 points to 24,457.65.

From the Sensex firms, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Axis Bank were the biggest gainers.

Sun Pharma, Nestle, UltraTech Cement, Power Grid, and Bajaj Finance were among the laggards.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 2,474.10 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

“The strong pillar of support for the market now is the sustained FII buying for nine days in a row for a cumulative amount of Rs 34,940 crore. India’s potential relative outperformance compared to other large economies can support the FII inflows and impart resilience to the market," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

The US treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s remark yesterday that “I would guess that India would be one of the first trade deals we would sign” is a big positive for India, Vijayakumar said.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng were trading in the positive territory while Shanghai SSE Composite quoted lower.

US markets ended mostly higher on Monday.

“The domestic equity market is expected to maintain its upward momentum, supported by sustained buying from FIIs, rally in global markets, and strong quarterly earnings. Market sentiment is further buoyed by optimism surrounding a potential India-US trade deal, following remarks from the US Treasury Secretary indicating that India could be among the first countries to finalize such an agreement," Vikas Jain, Head of Research at Reliance Securities, said.

India’s industrial production growth remained almost flat at 3 per cent in March sequentially, though, on a year-on-year basis, it slipped from 5.5 per cent, mainly due to poor performance of the manufacturing, mining, and power sectors.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.80 per cent to USD 65.33 a barrel.

The BSE benchmark index jumped 1,005.84 points or 1.27 per cent to settle at 80,218.37 on Monday. The Nifty rallied 289.15 points or 1.20 per cent to close at 24,328.50.

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