Sensex surges over 600 points in afternoon trade amid fresh tax cut hopes; Tata Motors gains 13%, Yes Bank jumps 8%

The equity benchmark indices witnessed strong gains in the afternoon on Tuesday following positive global sentiment on hopes of a rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. The BSE Sensex jumped over 600 points while the Nifty surged 172 points at around 1.30 pm.

Besides, some reports suggested that the government is planning a series of tax alignments for equities in the coming weeks in a bid to further boost investor sentiment.

At around 1.30 pm, the BSE Sensex was up by 612.96 points or 1.56 percent at 39,863.16 while the Nifty50 edged higher by 172.10 points or 1.48 percent to 11,799.25.

In the morning, the BSE Sensex rose over 100 points led by gains in Tata Motors, RIL and TCS, amid foreign fund inflow. At 9.15 a.m., the S&P BSE Sensex traded at 39,281.43 points, higher by 31.23 points or 0.08 percent from the previous close of 39,250.20 points.

It had opened at 39,293.49 points and has so far touched an intra-day high of 39,331.54 and a low of 39,274.70 points. After hitting a high of 39,393.12, the 30-share index was trading 106.37 points, or 0.27 percent, higher at 39,356.57 in morning trade, and the broader NSE Nifty advanced 16.75 points, or 0.14 percent, to 11,643.90.

Stock brokers. Representational image. Reuters.

Tata Motors was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 13 percent, after its British arm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) returned to profitability, reporting a pre-tax profit of 156 million pounds, 246 million pounds better year-on-year.

Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) too rose over 1 percent after the company on Friday said it will set up a new subsidiary to bring all its digital initiatives and apps under a single entity, and infuse Rs 1.08 lakh crore equity into this new unit.

Yes Bank jumped 7.67 percent to 58.95 in afternoon trade.

Tata Steel, M&M, Vedanta, TCS and Maruti too advanced up to 3 percent.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Bank, HUL, NTPC, Asian Paints, PowerGrid and SBI fell up to 4 percent.

In the previous session on Sunday, which was a special Muhurat trading session to mark the beginning of Hindu Samvat year 2076, the 30-share Sensex ended at 39,250.20, up 192.14 points, or 0.49 percent.

In domestic markets, the Nifty Auto index rose over 3 percent with Jaguar Land Rover owner Tata Motors jumping over 16% to its highest in over three months, after reporting a narrower quarterly loss on Friday.

Similarly, the Nifty climbed 43.25 points, or 0.37 percent, to finish at 11,627.15.

The Nifty IT index inched up over half a percent with shares of IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services Ltd adding 1.57%.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market, buying Rs 6.61 crore on Sunday, while domestic institutional investors purchased shares worth Rs 54.39 crore, data available with stock exchange showed.

Among the losers, shares of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, parent of the country’s largest airline IndiGo, fell as much as 5.19 percent, after the DGCA, the air safety watchdog on Monday asked the airline for more checks on planes with Pratt and Whitney engines. Adding to the firm’s woes, the airline posted its biggest-ever quarterly loss on Friday.

Bourses were closed on Monday on account of Diwali Balipratipada.

According to experts, investors will stay focused on the next leg of corporate earnings announcements during this holiday-truncated week.

The US Federal Reserve is expected to keep its interest rates steady on Wednesday. Volatility may prevail for short term with the overall market volumes showing a decreasing trend as further cues on Brexit and trade war will remain in focus, they added.

Rupee up 18 paise

The rupee on Tuesday appreciated by 18 paise to 70.72 against the US dollar in morning trade, as gains in domestic equity market and easing crude prices strengthened investor sentiments.

However, strengthening of the greenback vis-a-vis other currencies overseas capped gains for the rupee, forex dealers said.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened strong at 70.75, showing a gain of 15 paise over its previous closing.

On Friday, the rupee had appreciated by 12 paise to settle at 70.90 against the US dollar.

Forex market remained closed on Monday on account of Diwali Balipratipada.

A higher opening in the domestic equities supported the local unit.

Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, slipped 0.70 percent to USD 61.14 per barrel.

Asian shares up

Asian shares rose to a three-month peak on Tuesday after Wall Street hit all-time highs amid hopes of progress in Sino-U.S. trade talks and for another dose of policy stimulus from the Federal Reserve this week.

Japan's Nikkei led the way with a rise of 0.5 percent to reach ground last trod a full year ago, while Shanghai blue chips dithered either side of flat.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan crept up 0.2 percent to its highest since late July.

E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 extended their gains by 0.1 percent and 50 futures STXEc1 held steady.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected to sign a significant part of the trade deal with China ahead of schedule but did not elaborate on the timing, Reuters said.

The US trade representative also said they were studying whether to extend tariff suspensions on $34 billion of Chinese goods set to expire on 28 December this year.

“The market appears to be interpreting the improvement in trade talks as a positive sign that the US will suspend its planned tariffs on $160 billion of Chinese imports due to take place in December,” said Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX strategist at National Australia Bank.

“This is a big assumption as talks could easily fail again if both parties don’t find a compromise.”

On Wall Street, the S&P SPX gained 0.56 percent to score a record closing peak, while the Dow rose 0.49 percent and the Nasdaq 1.01 percent.

Microsoft Corp climbed 2.46 percent after winning the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud computing contract, beating out Amazon.com Inc.

Google parent Alphabet Inc slipped in late NY trade after missing analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit even though revenue growth topped expectations.

-- With inputs from agencies

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