Sensex rises over 500 points, Nifty reclaims 21,700; Zee drops 10%

Sensex rises over 500 points: The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Tuesday powered by gains in index heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank. The Sensex rose as much as 616 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 21,700 amid positive cues from other Asian markets.

As of 9:20 am, the Sensex was up 567 points at 71,990 and Nifty 50 index advanced 158 points to 21,730.

Japan's Nikkei share average rose to a 34-year peak on Tuesday, buoyed by Wall Street's climb overnight to a fresh record high and the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) decision to keep ultra-easy policy settings intact.

Japanese stocks received an additional tailwind from a rebound in Chinese equities amid hopes for additional stimulus measures from Beijing.

Image credit: Republic

Back home, buying was visible across sectors as all the major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange, barring the index of media shares, were trading higher led by Nifty Pharma index's 1.5 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Financial Services, IT, Private Bank and Healthcare indices also rose between 0.8-1.8 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a mixed note as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.35 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.06 per cent.

Among the individual shares, Zee Entertainment dropped 10 per cent a day after Japan's Sony terminated $10 billion merger deal with Zee.

Cipla was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 5.72 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 1,391.50 after the country's leading drug maker on Monday reported its third-quarter profits, surpassing analysts' expectations. The robust performance in both North American and domestic markets contributed to the positive outcome.

The consolidated net profit for the quarter ending December 31 increased annually by 32 per cent to Rs 1,056 crore. This exceeded the average analysts' estimate of Rs 1,043 crore, as reported by LSEG data.

North American sales rose 20 per cent during the quarter. The growth was partially attributed to the strong demand for Cipla's generic version of Bristol Myers Squibb's cancer treatment drug, Revlimid. Over the last five quarters, the company has consistently demonstrated sales growth ranging from 32 per cent to 52 per cent in the North American region.

ICICI Bank rose 3.2 per cent after it reported record high standalone profit of Rs 10,272 crore exceeding expectations of Rs 10,025 crore.

Power Grid, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Apollo Hospitals, NTPC, Axis Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra also rose 1.16-2.74 per cent.

On the flipside, Asian Paints, Bharat Petroleum, HDFC Bank, Grasim, Bajaj Auto, Britannia and Hindustan Unilever were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,804 shares were advancing while 1,233 were declining on the BSE.

(With Reuters inputs)