Closing Bell: Market rebounds strongly; Nifty scales 17300

Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty closed a choppy session with strong gains on Tuesday, shrugging off global trends, thanks to a smart recovery in financial, oil & gas and IT names.

The Indian equity market recovered from intraday losses during late deals to end higher today. Buying in heavyweights Reliance Industries, Infosys, TCS and ICICI Bank aided the bounceback in headline indices. The domestic bourses, which started on a weak note, surged led by buying in sectors like information technology and automobile stocks despite weak global cues. On the global front, the US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hinted at a rate hike of 50 basis points (bps) as the crude oil today traded above the USD 110 per barrel due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This led to benchmark indices ending higher with Nifty above 17,300.

At the closing bell on March 22, the Sensex was up 696.81 points or 1.22% at 57,989.30, and the Nifty was up 197.90 points or 1.16% at 17,315.50. On the market breadth, around 1573 shares have advanced, 1745 shares declined, and 99 shares are unchanged.

Among the top gainers today were Tech Mahindra, BPCL, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries and IOC. Top losers include HUL, Nestle India, Britannia Industries, Cipla and Divis Lab. In the buzzing stocks, Tech Mahindra was the top Nifty gainer as the stock zoomed 4.19% to Rs 1,541.75.

On a sectoral basis, IT, Auto, Bank and Oil & Gas indices rose 1% each, while Realty index was down 1%. In the broad market, the BSE midcap and smallcap indices ended on a flat note.

European stock market began Tuesday's session on a positive note but investors remain cautious over the Russia-Ukraine war. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was trading green in early deals.