Sensex, Nifty firm up gains for third session; IT, financial shares rally

Mumbai: Continuing its winning run for the third session in a row, the BSE benchmark Sensex added another 221 points to revisit the 60,500-level on Tuesday, helped by buying mainly in IT and financial shares.

After early hiccups, the 30-share benchmark remained poised throughout the session and went on to hit the day's high of 60,689.25. It finally ended 221.26 points or 0.37 per cent higher at 60,616.89.

Likewise, the NSE Nifty gained 52.45 points or 0.29 per cent to end at 18,055.75.

On the Sensex chart, HCL Tech, HDFC, Tech Mahindra, TCS, RIL, Sun Pharma and SBI were the major gainers, rising as much as 4.3 per cent.

On the other hand, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, ITC, Asian Paints and Kotak Bank were among the laggards.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, "Good Q3 results expected from financials, particularly leading banks, IT, metals, telecom and oil and gas are driving the current momentum in stocks."

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses saw mild to heavy selling as investors turned cautious noticing rising Omicron cases in China.

On the forex market front, the rupee closed 14 paise higher at 73.91 (provisional) against the US dollar.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 124.23 crore on Monday, according to stock exchange data.