In A Relief Rally, Sensex Jumps 900 Points Tracking Asian Peers; All Sectors In Green

India’s equity benchmark indices saw shoots of buying in the early session on Tuesday, March 18, extending gains for the second consecutive day, buoyed by strong cues from Asian markets. Sensex jumped around 900 points or 1.2 per cent to trade above the 75,000 mark. Similarly, Nifty surged over 250 points to trade in the range of 22,750-22,800.

All the 13 major sectoral indices gained in the early session, with banks, auto, FMCG, metal and realty leading the gains. The oil & gas index was the only drag, though still in the green.

The cumulative market capitalisation of all the BSE-listed stocks surged over 4.36 lakh crore, reaching 397.53 lakh crore.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, expressed optimism that the market has likely bottomed out, though he said further corrections cannot be completely ruled out. According to him positive domestic cues like the rebound in FY25 Q3 GDP growth to 6.2 per cent, a 5.1 per cent spurt in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), a 16 per cent increase in gross tax collection, a declining trade deficit, and, most importantly, a decline in CPI inflation to 3.6 per cent are positive macro trends which augur well for the market.

However, he cautioned that these domestic tailwinds are not strong enough to take the market to higher levels on a sustained basis since the global headwinds from tariff wars will counter the domestic tailwinds.

Top Gainers & Losers

Among the 30-share Sensex, Zomato jumped over 4 per cent, ICICI Bank and Asian Paints surged over 2.5 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra rose around 2.2 per cent and Larsen & Toubro advanced around 2 per cent. Dragging the index were Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, and IndusInd Bank, while heavyweight Reliance Industries and Tech Mahindra traded around flat levels.

In the 50-share Nifty index, Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, Shriram Finance, and Mahindra & Mahindra led the gains - all trading in the range of 2-2.5 per cent. The Bajaj twins - Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance, Bharat Petroleum, Bajaj Finance, and IndusInd Bank dragged the index.

Asian Peers Surge On Hopes Of Growth Revival In China

China's retail sales picked up in the January-February period, growing 4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) from the 3.7 per cent growth recorded in December, offering encouraging signs for the economy.

This led Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index to surge by nearly 2 per cent in Tuesday’s session. With this, Hang Seng extended its year-to-date (YTD) gains to 25 per cent.

However, China’s Industrial Production decelerated, rising 5.9 per cent YoY in the first two months of the year, as against the 6.2 per cent growth in December.

VK Vijayakumar said the hopes of growth revival in China, along with the cheap valuations of Chinese stocks have attracted foreign capital inflows into the country. As a result, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been reducing their holdings in emerging markets, especially in India, where stock valuations are relatively expensive, he added.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump also hinted that Chinese President Xi Jinping may visit the US soon. Speaking during a visit to Washington’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday, Trump said that the Chinese leader would be “coming in the not-too-distant future”. This has raised hopes of a breakthrough deal between the two superpowers to ease tariff tensions.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index advanced around 1.25 per cent and South Korea’s KOSPI also edged up nearly a quarter per cent.