India's benchmark indices extended gains by midday on Tuesday, buoyed by information technology stocks post the US Federal Reserve Chair's dovish tilt last week. The Nifty 50 index hit a fresh record high near midday at 25,099.95, and was up 0.32% or 80.75 points 25,098.50 as of 11:53 a.m. The BSE Sensex was up 269 points, or 0.33%, at 81,981.
The rally was led by IT stocks as Nifty IT too touched a fresh life high of 42,712.50, before cooling off to 42,623.20 at 12:19 p.m. The information technology gauge rose for the third consecutive day after Jerome Powell said "time has come" for September rate cuts, boosting business prospects for domestic firms.
"We expect the volatility to increase with respect to rollover movement in individual sectors and stocks with respect to the monthly expiry. RSI is overbought on hourly charts and reversing downwards, and we could witness some minor pullback and retracement over the next few days," said Vikas Jain, head of research at Reliance Securities.
Shares of Infosys Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Bharti Airtel Ltd. positively contributed to changes in the index.
While those of ICICI Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd. and Asian Paints Ltd. weighed the index.
On NSE, half the sectors advanced with Nifty IT and Pharma rising during the session. The Realty index fell the most.
Broader markets were trading in the green. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were trading 0.12% and 0.40% higher, respectively.
On BSE, 14 out of 20 sectors advanced, with the BSE Information Technology rising the most. BSE Realty and FMCG were the top losers in trade.
Market breadth was skewed in the favour of buyers. Around 2,149 stocks rose, 1,617 stocks declined, and 131 stocks remained unchanged on BSE.