Market on Tuesday: Sensex Ends Higher As Oil Cools; Pharma Stocks Shine

By Malvika Gurung

Investing.com -- Indian equity benchmark indices continued to rise for the second straight session, ending higher on Tuesday, after making a gap-up opening, taking positive cues from an overnight rally on Wall Street, expectations of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and lower crude oil prices.

A swift uptick in pharmaceutical stocks, along with gains recorded in realty scrips helped the domestic market to end higher.

Benchmark gauges Nifty 50 advanced 0.6% and BSE Sensex added 350.16 points or 0.61% on Tuesday, and the former index closed surpassing the 17,300 mark for the first time in the ongoing week.

A drop in oil prices, led by prospects of peace talks between Russia-Ukraine, along with lower demand expectations from the Chinese market due to lockdowns imposed in Shanghai and other cities, on account of rising Covid-19 cases, provided support to markets, stated Vinod Nair from Geojit Financial Services.

However, global cues, especially amid expectations of an imminent aggressive rate hike by the Fed to tame soaring inflation, along with the upcoming domestic events like the March derivative expiry in the week will keep the market cautious.

On the sectoral front, indices Nifty Media and Nifty PSU Bank ended lower, while Nifty Auto and Nifty FMCG ended flat. All the remaining indices on the Nifty basket ended higher, led by Nifty Pharma . Nifty Bank gained 0.38%.

64% of stocks listed on the Nifty ended in the green, led by Eicher Motors (NS: EICH ), HDFC (NS: HDFC ) and Divi's Laboratories (NS: DIVI ), rising 3.2-5%, while Hero MotoCorp (NS: HROM ), ONGC (NS: ONGC ) and Coal India (NS: COAL ) slumped the most, shedding 3-7%.