Sensex Gains Over 200 Points, Nifty Above 15,100

Tata Steel has gained 0.8 per cent to trade at Rs 708.50 ahead of its Q3 numbers

The domestic stock markets have opened at fresh highs, extending Budget-fuelled rally that started in the past week, on the back of positive global cues. At 9:18 am, the BSE Sensex was trading at 51,551, higher by 201.50 points or 0.4 per cent and the NSE Nifty was at 15,170.50, up 56.25 points or 0.38 per cent. The BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indexes were however trading flat at 19,678.96 and 19,415.11 respectively.

Wall Street at closed at all-time closing highs on Monday as investor optimism was stoked by prospects of a speedier economic recovery from the global health crisis, driven by increased stimulus and an accelerated vaccine rollout.

The Dow Jones rose 237.52 points, or 0.76 per cent, to 31,385.76, the S&P 500 gained 28.76 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 3,915.59 and Nasdaq Composite added 131.35 points, or 0.95 per cent, to 13,987.64.

Meanwhile, oil prices edged up on Tuesday to their highest in 13 months as supply cuts by major producers and optimism over fuel demand recovery support energy markets.

Brent crude futures for April gained 29 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to $60.85 a barrel by 0246 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) for March was at $58.25 a barrel, up 28 cents, or 0.5 per cent.

BPCL, Wipro, HDFC Life, SBI Life and UPL have gained 2-3 per cent each to top the gainers charts on the BSE.

On the other hand, IOC, Tata Motors and SBI have lost 1-4 per cent each on the BSE.

On the stock-specific front, Future Retail hit the upper circuit of 10 per cent at Rs 80.50 after the Delhi High Court on Monday quashed an order that halted Future Group’s Rs 24,713 crore deal to sell its assets to Reliance Industries, amounting to a setback to Amazon.com’s efforts to block the sale.

Tata Steel has gained 0.8 per cent to trade at Rs 708.50 ahead of its Q3 numbers scheduled later in the day.

The BSE market breadth favoured the bulls, Out of 2,310 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1,177 advancing stocks as against 1,040 declines.