Sensex up 46 points in choppy trade on better macrodata, foreign fund inflows; PSU, metal, power stocks rally

Mumbai: The benchmark indices turned choppy in morning trade on Tuesday and oscillated between gains and losses, driven by better-than-expected macroeconomic data and fresh foreign fund inflows amid global sell-off.

The 30-share index fell over 140 points in opening trade but soon recovered the lost ground to quote higher by 46.12 points or 0.13 percent at 34,859.11.

Similar movement was seen on the wide-based Nifty, which fell by 42 points, but soon gathered momentum and was trading higher by 21.45 points or 0.20 percent at 10,503.65.

Traders said the benchmarks opened lower tracking global sell-off, but better-than-expected macroeconomic data supported investor sentiment.

Besides, easing global crude oil prices, which slipped below the $70 a barrel mark and recovery in the rupee also supported the uptrend.

The global benchmark, Brent crude was trading down 0.98 percent at $69.43 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the rupee recovered by 29 paise to 72.60 against the US currency in early trade on Tuesday.

The 30 share index had lost 425 points in the previous two days.

Sectoral index, led by oil & gas, PSU, metal, power and IT gained up to 1.06 percent.

Major gainers include, Asian Paints, Coal India, Axis Bank, Adani Port, Vedanta, PowerGrid, TCS, Tata Steel and ONGC, rising up to 1.14 percent.

The losers include, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Auto and Wipro falling up to 2.26 percent.

Meanwhile, retail inflation fell to a one-year low of 3.31 percent in October on the back of cheaper kitchen staples, fruits and protein-rich items, official data released Monday showed.

Industrial production grew at the slowest pace in four months at 4.5 percent in September mainly due to poor performance of mining sector and lower offtake of capital goods. The industrial production measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was 4.1 percent in September 2017.

Meanwhile, on a net basis, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 832.15 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares of Rs 1,073.84 crore Monday, provisional data showed.

Asian markets were trading lower tracking losses at Wall Street.

Japan’s Nikkei plunged 3.21 percent, Korea’s KOSPI fell 1.52 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 1.23 percent and Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.21 percent in early trade Tuesday.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 2.32 percent Monday.