Sensex up nearly 275 pts intraday, Nifty above 17,300

Benchmark indices were trading higher during the afternoon on Tuesday.

Market opened on a positive note, tracking firm global cues. A fall in crude prices and hopes of progress in Russia-Ukraine peace talks aided investor sentiments. Indices extended gains in the first half, witnessing buying across multiple counters, tracking gains in heavyweights such as HDFC. 

At 1 pm, the BSE Sensex was trading at 57,868.27, up 274.78 points or 0.48 per cent. It recorded an intraday high of 57,934.15 and a low of 57,644.85. The Nifty 50 was trading at 17,302.35, up 80.35 points or 0.47 per cent, near the day’s high of 17,322.25. It recorded an intraday low of 17,241.60.

Divi’s Lab, Ultratech Cement, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports and HDFC were the top gainers on the Nifty 50 while ONGC, Coal India, ITC, Tata Steel and State Bank of India were the top losers.

Metals, PSU Bank, Oil & Gas under pressure

On the sectoral front, a majority of indices were in the green. While realty, pharma, consumer durables, auto and financials, barring PSU Bank, gained, metals and oil & gas dragged.

Nifty Realty and Nifty Pharma were up over 1 per cent each while Nifty Healthcare Index was trading nearly 1 per cent higher.  Nifty Auto was up 0.66 per cent while Nifty Consumer Durables was up 0.62 per cent. Nifty Finanical Services, Nifty Bank and NIfty Private Bank were up 0.73 per cent, 0.29 per cent and 0.30 per cent, respectively. 

Meanwhile, Nifty PSU Bank was down 0.47 per cent. Nifty Metal was down 0.43 per cent while Nifty Oil & Gas was down 0.36 per cent.

Broader indices

As for broader indices, Nifty Midcap 50 was up 0.43 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 50 was down 0.24 per cent. The S&P BSE Midcap was up 0.51 per cent while the S&P BSE Smallcap was up 0.50 per cent.

The volatility index softened 4.80 per cent to 21.52.