The domestic equity benchmarks traded with minor gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 23,650 mark after hitting the day’s low of 23,627.55 in early afternoon trade. Barring the Nifty IT index, all the other sectoral indices on the NSE were traded in red.
At 13:26 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, added 34.09 points or 0.04% to 78,018.47. The Nifty 50 index rose 26.25 points or 0.11% to 23,684.60.
The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 1.27% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index declined 1.80%.
The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 1,064 shares rose and 2,904 shares fell. A total of 125 shares were unchanged.
Gainers & Losers:
UltraTech Cement (up 3.49%), Trent (up 2.81%), Grasim industries (up 2.42%), Infosys (up 2.15%) and Bajaj Finserv (up 2.15%) were the major Nifty gainers.
IndusInd Bank (down 5.18%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (down 3.04%), Hindalco Industries (down 2.07%), Coal India (down 1.81%) and ICICI Bank (down 1.68%) were the major Nifty losers.
UltraTech Cement jumped 3.49% after a foreign brokerage upgraded its rating on the stock to buy, citing a positive outlook for the cement sector.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Britannia Industries added 1.01%. The company said that its plant located in Jhagadia, Gujarat has partially affected due to a workers' strike.
Adani Enterprises declined 1.48%. The company has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Adani New Industries (ANIL), has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary, Adani New Industries One (ANIOL).
NBCC (India) slipped 2.46%. The company announced that it has received two work orders totaling Rs 658.43 crore from Uttarakhand Investment and Infrastructure Development Board (UIIDB) and Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT).
Bajel Projects added 0.48%. The company announced that it has secured a large EPC order from Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission Corporation (MPPTCL).
Kalpataru Projects International advanced 2.44% after the company and its international subsidiaries secured new orders worth Rs 2,366 crore.
Brigade Enterprises lost 1.46%. The company has announced the acquisition of a 4.4-acre land parcel in Whitefield, East Bengaluru, for the development of a premium residential project.
Global Markets:
European shares advanced on Tuesday as British oil major shell announced plans to increase shareholder returns and cut spend as it doubles down on its liquified natural gas (LNG) push.
Asian stocks traded mixed, as investors assessed U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats.
In China, the central bank announced changes to the way it sells medium-term loans, a move that market participants believe could further diminish the role of such instruments in guiding monetary policy. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) stated it will issue 450 billion yuan ($62.03 billion) in one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans on Tuesday. Starting this month, MLF operations will be conducted using a fixed-quantity, interest-rate bidding, and multiple-price bidding method, the PBOC added.
On Wall Street, U.S. indices surged on Monday amid reports that Trump’s April 2 tariffs will be less harsh than previously feared. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.42%, the S&P 500 climbed 1.76%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite soared 2.27%.
Tesla shares, which had been declining for nine consecutive weeks, rebounded nearly 12%, building on their Friday gains. Meta Platforms and Nvidia also saw gains of more than 3%.
Meanwhile, 23AndMe Holding Co plummeted 59% after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The economic activity in the US' private sector expanded at an accelerating pace in March, with the S&P Global Composite PMI rising to 53.5 (preliminary) from 51.6 in February. The Services PMI climbed to 54.3 in March from 51 in February, while the manufacturing PMI declined to 49.8 in March from 52.7 February.
Wall Street has been under pressure in recent weeks amid concerns that Trump’s tariffs could drive up inflation, disrupt global trade, and slow economic growth. Earlier this month, major indices slumped to six-month lows on such fears.
While Trump has repeatedly described April 2 as “liberation day” for the U.S., investors found some relief in signs that the tariffs' scope may be narrower than initially expected, potentially limiting their economic impact.