The stock markets opened in the green on Tuesday. At 09:16 AM, the benchmark indices were up. Sensex was up 267.74 points or 0.55 percent at 48986.26, and the Nifty was up 84.30 points or 0.58 percent at 14718.50. About 1313 shares have advanced, 195 shares declined, and 39 shares are unchanged.
At 09:02 IST, the Sensex was up 252.57 points or 0.52 percent at 48971.09, and the Nifty was up 23.80 points or 0.16 percent at 14658.00.
ONGC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, gaining around 2 percent, followed by Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance and NTPC. Titan, HUL, Reliance Industries, PowerGrid, Sun Pharma and Infosys were among the laggards.
In the previous session, Sensex finished 63.84 points or 0.13 percent lower at 48,718.52, and Nifty closed 3.05 points or 0.02 percent higher at 14,634.15.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,289.46 crore on Monday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares worth Rs 552.92 crore, according to provisional exchange data.
"This bull market, which has been climbing many walls of worries, is likely to remain resilient supported by positive news on the COVID front,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
He noted that the latest data indicates plateauing of the COVID curve and a steady decline in COVID numbers in 13 states including Maharashtra. Daily numbers after peaking at 4.02 lakh on May 1, have been steadily declining and now stand near 3.5 lakh.
"This can give further support to the ''hope trade'' that is currently on, despite the grim health crisis. Q4 results continue to be good across sectors. The FIIs continue to be on the sell side but this is being neutralised by DII buying. IT, pharma, telecom are safe sectors in the context of the lockdowns during the second wave," he added.
The markets were expected to open on a flat note after a very volatile day yesterday. The results season is giving strength to the volatile markets. "We expect strong stock specific action during the result season instead of a wider broader market movement . 14,500 and 14,200 remains crucial supports," said Mohit Nigam, Head, PMS, Hem Securities.
On Monday, the stock markets recovered all the day's losses and ended on a flat note. Sensex closed down 0.13 percent and the Nifty ended up 0.02 percent in a highly volatile day. The markets managed to hold psychologically important 14,500 levels in Nifty 50.
Asian shares mixed
Asian shares were mixed after strong corporate earnings and economic data lifted stocks on Wall Street.
Hong Kong and Sydney advanced while Seoul declined. Tokyo and Shanghai were closed for holidays.
On Monday, a strong dose of positive earnings reports and economic data that showed the US economy is growing pushed the S&P 500 up 0.3 pecent. US futures were lower on Tuesday.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.4% to 28,475.47 and the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.3 percent to 7,048.70. In Seoul, the Kospi lost 0.4 percent to 3,116.61. Shares rose in Jakarta but fell in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
On Monday, shares of clothing retailer Gap Inc. and flooring manufacturer Mohawk Industries both gained more than 7 percent. The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index came in at 60.7, well above the 50-point mark that indicates manufacturing activity is expanding.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the economic outlook has “clearly brightened” in the United States, but the recovery remains too uneven.
Health care and energy companies helped push stocks higher Monday, with the S&P 500 closing at 4,192.66.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7 percent to 34,113.23. The tech-heavy Nasdaq shed an early gain, falling 0.5 percent to 13,895.12.
Smaller companies, had a good showing. The Russell 2000 index picked up 0.5 percent to 2,277.45.
Stocks have been grinding higher on expectations of an economic recovery and strong company profits this year as large-scale coronavirus vaccination programs help people return to jobs and normal behaviors after more than a year of restrictions.
Massive support from the US government and the Federal Reserve, and increasingly positive economic data, have also helped put investors in a buying mood, keeping stock indexes near their all-time highs.
More than half of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported their results so far this earnings season, which show profit growth of 54 percent so far, according to FactSet.
This will be another busy week for earnings reports, with Merck, Pepsi, Colgate-Palmolive and CVS among the companies reporting their latest quarterly results. Investors will also get April's jobs report on Friday.
On the economic front, a report on US manufacturing activity in April came in below economists'' expectations, but still was strong for the month.
The Institute for Supply Management''s manufacturing index came in at 60.7 for April, compared with the 65.0 reading that was expected. However that figure is still well above the 50-point mark that indicates expanding manufacturing activity.
A report on US construction spending showed similar results, making gains but still falling short of economists'' forecasts. Spending on construction projects rose just 0.2 percent in March, the Commerce Department said Monday, significantly less than the 1.7 percent jump economists had expected.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note slipped to 1.60 percent from 1.65 percent late Friday.
US benchmark crude oil gained 5 cents to $64.54 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose 91 cents on Monday to $64.49 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 5 cents to $67.61 per barrel.
The US dollar rose to 109.23 Japanese yen from 109.09 yen late Monday. The euro slipped to $1.2046 from $1.2066.
