Indian stock market returns to normal; investors earn nearly Rs 8 lakh crore

Mumbai (The Uttam Hindu): After Monday's big fall, the Indian stock market witnessed a strong rally on Tuesday and the major benchmarks of the domestic market, Nifty and Sensex, rose by more than 1.5 percent.

Auto and bank stocks supported the market, with both major benchmarks closing near their day's highs. Risk sentiment improved among investors on hopes of easing tensions in the US-Iran war amid conflicting statements from both sides.

At market close, the NSE Nifty50 was up 399.75 points, or 1.78 percent, at 22,912.40, while the BSE Sensex was up 1.89 percent, or 1,372.06 points, at 74,068.45. In intra-day trade, the Sensex opened at 74,212.47 and touched an intraday high of 74,489.39, while the Nifty50 opened at 22,878.45 and touched 23,057.30.

Broader markets outperformed benchmark indices. Nifty Midcap rose 2.60 percent, while Nifty Smallcap gained 2.63 percent. Sectorally, the auto sector gained 2.43 percent. Nifty Media (up 3.45 percent) and Nifty Bank (up 2.27 percent) also performed well. Furthermore, Nifty IT gained 1.72 percent, while Nifty FMCG gained 1.25 percent.

In Nifty50, Indigo and L&T shares recorded the highest jump of 5.49 percent and 5.17 percent respectively. After this, shares of Bajaj Finance, Eternal, Asian Paints and Apollo Hospital also saw a good rise, whereas shares of Coal India, Powergrid, Sun Pharma and Cipla registered a decline. Due to this rise in the market, the total market capitalization of the companies listed on BSE increased by Rs 7.74 lakh crore, from Rs 415.11 lakh crore on Monday to Rs 422.85 lakh crore. This means that investors made a profit of around Rs 8 lakh crore in a single day.