D-Street rally: Sensex zooms 578 pts, Nifty settles above 17,800

Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex surged over 578 points and the Nifty advanced nearly 200 points on Tuesday, tracking global stock markets which seem to have come to terms with economists forecasting another hefty Fed rate hike this week amid higher inflation in the US.

The Sensex briefly traded over the key 60,000-level during the mid-session before closing at 59,720 – rising 578 points or 0.98 percent to mark its second straight session of gains.

Likewise, the NSE Nifty marked its intraday high at 17,919 before erasing some of its gains and settling at 17,816, showing a rise of 194 points or 1.1 percent over its previous close.

On the Sensex chart, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Dr Reddy’s, Tata Steel, Titan and Asian Paints were prominent gainers – rising as much as 4.23 percent.

On the other hand, Nestle, Infosys, ITC, PowerGrid and Reliance were on the losing side.

Broader BSE largecap, smallcap and midcap indices surged 0.95 percent, 0.97 percent and 1.62 percent, respectively.

"Bulls charged on D-Street today with the help of autos and financials with strong support coming from the laggard - pharma sector today. The surprise element to many of course was the Nifty Infrastructure sector which saw smart gains led by cement yet again. Consumer durable stocks too displayed good momentum ahead of the festive season on the back of a bountiful monsoon," said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP securities.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses saw good buying on Tuesday following a rebound in the final hour of Wall Street trading on the view that an expected hefty Federal Reserve interest rate hike this week to tackle inflation had been priced into the market.

Asian and European bourses used a tailwind from Monday's advance on Wall Street to chalk up modest gains, with the STOXX index of 600 European companies flat.

The MSCI all country stock index was 0.2 percent up, leaving it down about 20 percent from a lifetime high in January.