Nifty rebounds from 18-month low to end above 7,550

The recovery was led by index heavyweight Reliance Industries along with Infosys and Tata Motors

Benchmark share indices rebounded from their 18-month lows, amid a roller coaster trading session, led by index heavyweight Reliance Industries while Infosys gained ahead of its third quarter earnings tomorrow.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended up 172 points at 24,854 after hitting a 52-week low of 24,387.69 intra-day and the Nifty ended up 52 points at 7,562 after hitting a 52-week low of 7,425.80

In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index ended     while the BSE Smallcap index ended        . However, market breadth ended negative with 2209 losers and 567 gainers on the BSE.

"Overall the global sentiment for riskier assets is weak. The sharp intra-day fall  seemed like basket selling by institutional investors. Although banks continue to remain under pressure the recovery in the latter half of the trading session was led by index heavyweights," said Kunj Bansal, ED & CIO, Centrum Wealth Management.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers worth Rs 541 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

ECONOMY

Consumer Price Index-based (CPI) inflation for December rose to 5.61 per cent, against 5.41 per cent in November and 4.28 per cent in December last year, as per official released late Tuesday

Industrial output fell 3.2 per cent in November, contracting by the sharpest margin in the past four years, government data released late Tuesday showed. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) dipped for the first time in the past 13 months in November, after registering a five-year high rise of 9.8 per cent in October.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Most Asian stocks ended higher on better-than-expected trade data. Japanese shares rebounded to end 2.8% higher while Hang Seng gained 1.1% and Straits Times ended with marginal gains. However, China's Shanghai Composite ended down 2.5% after rising in early trades.

European shares extended gains and were trading higher after encouraging trade data from China helped allayed some of the growth worries. The CAC-40, DAX and FTSE-100 were up 1.1-1.6% each.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Auto index was the top gainer up 0.9% along with IT, Oi & Gas and Bankex indices. Healthcare, Capital Goods, Metal and Realty indices were the top losers.

Infosys ended up 3.1% ahead of its third quarter earnings tomorrow. Edelweiss Securities expect the company to maintain its cross currency guidance of 10-12% and adjust its annual guidance for cross currency movement.

Reliance Industries ended 3.1% higher on expectations that the higher gross refining margins would boost earnigns in the third quarter. RIL expects to report higher gross refining margins (GRMs) thanks to a $1.5 a barrel improvement in the benchmark Singapore GRM to $8 a barrel.

Tata Motors ended up 2.7%. The company recently announced record global sales of its luxury car arm  Jaguar Land Rover in 2015 retailing 4,87,065 vehicles.

Select financials gained after the correction in the previous sessions. HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI ended up  0.6%-1.1% each.

Sun Pharma ended up 0.6%. The company sold two business divisions in India for Rs 165 crore. In September last year, Sun Pharma and Strides Shasun signed an agreement related to erstwhile Ranbaxy's 'Solus' and ‘Solus Care’ divisions.

TCS ended down 1.9% after it reported lower-than-expected revenues in the December quarter. This is for the sixth quarter in a row that the Mumbai-headquartered company misses the Street’s revenue estimates. The revenue at Rs 27,364 crore grew 11.7% on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis against a consensus revenue of Rs 27,643 crore.

Capital goods majors L&T and BHEL ended down 1.9% each amid weak industrial output in November 2015.