Sensex, Nifty extend gains powered by buying in IT, pharma shares

The Indian equity benchmarks extended gains in noon deals led by gains in information technology heavyweights such as Infosys , Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies. The Sensex rose as much as 478 points and Nifty 50 index was trading firmly above its important psychological level of 25,000.

As of 12:48 pm, the Sensex was up 423 points at 81,983 and Nifty 50 index climbed 128 points to 25,063.

Most Asian stocks climbed on Tuesday, following a rebound in Wall Street as investors awaited key inflation data for hints on potential interest rate cuts.

However, Chinese markets underperformed their regional counterparts after U.S. policymakers passed a bill imposing new restrictions on several Chinese biotechnology firms. Weak economic signals from China over the past week also weighed on its stocks.

Other Asian markets were buoyed by Wall Street’s overnight recovery, with investor attention focused on upcoming consumer price index data, which could influence future interest rate decisions.

Back home, buying was visible across the board with information technology shares leading the sectoral charts. The Nifty IT index surged 1.65 per cent. Media, pharma, metal and real estate shares were also witnessing good buying interest.

On the other hand, select financial services and oil & gas stocks were facing selling pressure.

Broader markets were outperforming their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1.10 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 0.8 per cent.

Pharma shares and shares of snack makers were witnessing good buying interest after the government reduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) on cancer drugs and savoury snacks.

Divi's Labs was top Nifty gainer, the stock climbed 4 per cent to Rs 5,382. LTI Mindtree, Infosys , Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports, Power Grid, Tata Consumer Products, Titan and Tata Consultancy Services also rose between 1.3-3.4 per cent.

HDFC Life, Bajaj Finserv, SBI Life, Shriram Finance, Bajaj Finance, Hero MotoCorp and Grasim were among the losers.

The overall market breadth remained positive as 2,589 shares were advancing while 1,232 were declining in the BSE.