Sensex, Nifty rise amid fall in crude oil prices, strength in rupee

Notwithstanding declining crude oil prices and strengthening rupee, Nifty bulls today remained indecisive. BSE Sensex opened 67.52 points or 0.11% higher at 61,212, while Nifty50 was trading at 18,179, up 19 points or 0.11%.

Among Sensex stocks, L&T, Maruti, NTPC, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank were the top gainers, rising around 0.5%. Dr Redyy’s, UltraTech Cement, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and M&M also opened higher.

On the other hand, TCS, Nestle, Asian Paints, Power Grid, Kotak Bank, HCL Tech, Wipro and Reliance opened with cuts.

Sectorally, the Nifty PSU Bank rose 1.15% and Nifty Auto surged 0.12%. Nifty IT and Nifty Oil & Gas opened lower. In the broader market, Nifty Midcap50 rose 0.06% while Smallcap50 plunged 0.17%.

“The weakness in the market is likely to continue in the near-term. With the dollar index rebounding to above 108, FIIs may sell again or at least refrain from big buying,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

“There are no positive triggers now that can take the market much higher from the current levels. The Covid spread in China is likely to impact Chinese growth and, therefore, further weakness in crude and metals is likely. Long-term investors can utilize the weakness in the market to buy high quality stocks in banking, telecom, capital goods, IT and autos and blue chips across sectors,” Vijayakumar added.

US markets finished lower on Monday for the third time in the past four trading sessions, as a fresh round of Covid-19 shutdowns in China rattled investors. On Monday US Market’s Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.13% and S&P 500 plunged 0.39% while Nasdaq Composite declined 1.09%.

In early trade in Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.81% and China’s Shanghai Composite surged 0.75% while South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.18%.

The Indian rupee declined 0.20% to 81.68 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, declined 0.27% to 107.54 level.

Brent crude January futures rose 0.53% to $87.81 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures surged 0.37% to $80.34 a barrel.

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