The overall market breadth stood positive as 1,939 advanced while 1,507 declined on BSE.New Delhi: The Indian equity benchmarks continued to surge on Tuesday led by gains in information technology stocks.
The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 221 points or 0.37 per cent to close at 60,616, while the broader NSE Nifty settled 52 points or 0.29 per cent higher at 18,056.
Both the indexes logged their third straight session of gains.Mid- and small-cap shares finished a tad higher as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.09 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index gained 0.06 per cent.Eight out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- settled in green.
Nifty IT outperformed the index by rising as much as 1.03 per cent.
IT heavyweights Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys will kick start the third-quarter (Q3) earnings season on January 12."There are a lot of positive expectations in the market in relation to the Q3 results.
We could see good positive momentum in the market in the coming days.
A lot will be focused on the IT pack that will start declaring its results from tomorrow," Rahul Sharma, Co-owner, Equity 99, told TheIndianSubcontinent."18,000 will act as very strong support for Nifty 50 index.
If this level is broken then we will see 17,880 levels.
While on the upper side, 18,125 will act as a very strong resistance for the index.
Once it crosses this, we may see 18,200 and 18,280 levels," he added.On the stock-specific front, HCL Tech was the top Nifty gainer as the stock rallied 4.49 per cent to Rs 1,346.
Adani Ports, HDFC, Tech Mahindra and ONGC were also among the gainers.On the flipside, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, BPCL, Hindalco and Coal India were among the laggards.The overall market breadth stood positive as 1,939 advanced while 1,507 declined on BSE.On the 30-share BSE platform, HCL Tech, HDFC, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Reliance Industries and Sun Pharma attracted the most gains with their shares rising as much as 4.30 per cent.
Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, ITC, Dr Reddy's , Kotak Mahindra Bank and Asian Paints were among the losers.Vodafone Idea shares tanked as much as 20.54 per cent to settle at Rs 11.80 after the telecom operator's board approved a plan to convert the full amount of interest related to spectrum auction instalments and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues into government equity.Meanwhile, the daily rise in Covid-19 cases remained high, although Tuesday's 1,68,063 increase was slightly lower than Monday's figure of 1,79,723.Analysts have said investors are not too worried about the Covid situation as the Omicron variant -- though fast spreading -- is not virulent and hospitalisation cases are low.