Sensex, Nifty end at 2-week high; banks, FMCG stocks lead gainers

Extending gains for the third straight session, equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty rallied and closed Tuesday's session at a two week high supported by banking, FMCG and auto stocks.

Market sentiments were further bolstered after comments from the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator indicated that a deal with Britain over the terms of Brexit was likely this week.

The 30-share Sensex rallied 292 points, or 0.76 per cent, to 38,506, while 50-share Nifty ended at 11,428, up 87 points or 0.77 per cent.

HUL was among the top gainers in the Sensex pack, rising over 2 per cent, after the company on Monday posted a 21 per cent year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit at Rs 1,848 crore. The numbers beat a Rs 1,700 crore profit estimate that analysts had projected in an ETNOW poll. The company had reported Rs 1,525 crore PAT for the same quarter last year.

Analysts said that investors are also hoping for further rate cuts from the RBI to tackle the economic slowdown. Earnings season is likely to dictate trend for the markets for the next few days as investors await fresh cues from the upcoming quarterly results.

Market at a glance
In the 30-pack Sensex, 27 stocks ended in the green and three in the red with Vedanta finishing as the best performer and Bharti Airtel the worst. Maruti Suzuki, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp and M&M too joined Vedanta on the gainers’ list, jumping up to 4 per cent.

Infosys and Tata Motors were among the Sensex stocks that declined.

The BSE Midcap index advanced 0.72 per cent while the BSE Smallcap index slipped 0.11 per cent, underperforming benchmark Sensex.

BSE Auto index rose 2.36 per cent to top the sectoral gainers followed by Metal, FMCG and Bankex index. Meanwhile, BSE Telecom and IT index were the worst performers.

In terms of index contribution, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, HUL and ITC were chart toppers on Sensex and Infosys, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors were the top drags.

Expert Take:
The on-going earnings season is likely to set the tone for the Indian markets as some of the heavyweights would be declaring their results this week. We expect that more than the earnings announcement, the outlook given by the management would hold importance especially for consumption driven companies. On the global front, market participants would keep a close watch on US-China trade talks along with movement in currency and crude oil prices.
- Ajit Mishra Vice President, Research, Religare Broking

Global markets
On the global front, most Asian shares closed higher as investors hoped that Britain will avoid a messy exit from the European Union at key negotiations this week.

European stocks climbed to a two-week high in morning trade as markets cheered comments from the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator that a deal with Britain over the terms of their divorce was still possible this week.