Sensex jumps 1,200 pts; Nifty claims 22,800: Why markets are rising today

The Nifty small-cap 250 was up 1.87 per cent, while the mid-cap gauge was up 1.35 per cent

Stock Market Today: Indian benchmark indices -- Nifty, and Sensex -- advanced over 1 per cent on Tuesday along with the broader markets, buoyed by upbeat global sentiments and strong domestic institutional buying. 

 

The key gauge Nifty 50 rose as much as 1.55 per cent, or 349.05 points, in the intraday trade to hit a high of 22,857.8, marking the best intraday rally since March 5, while the 30-stock Sensex rose as much as 1.63 per cent, or 1,215.8 points, to rally past the 75,000 mark.  

 

As of 3:30 PM, the Nifty was up 1.45 per cent at 22,834.3, while the Sensex was up 1.5 per cent at 75,285.39. Meanwhile, the Nifty small-cap 250 was up 2.66 per cent, and the mid-cap gauge was up 2.06 per cent.

 

 

Global markets have seen an upmove in the last couple of sessions and Nifty has surpassed its 20-daily exponential moving averages (DEMA) today after more than a month, according to Ruchit Jain, head of technical research at Motilal Oswal. "This has led to buying interest in large-cap names, leading to a market rally. The Nifty can rally towards 22,900-23,000 in this upmove," he added. 

 

Further, the "positive news" on the economic front, is also a key trigger according to analysts. The downturn in the market starting October last year coincided with the downturn in GDP growth in Q2 FY24, V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services, noted. Now that the growth has picked up along with a fall in inflation, it augurs well for another rate cut in April, he said.

 

The economy is on the rebound but the market is discounting this, Vijayakumar said. "Perhaps more importantly, when the market is oversold like now, there can be short covering which can lead to unexpected spurts. DIIs, who are sitting on big cash, might be deploying a part of the money in attractively valued segments like financials," he said.  

  Key reasons why Indian stock markets rallied today: 

Global risk-on sentiment: Indian stocks got a boost from gains made among their Asian peers, taking overnight cues from a second-day rally on Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei was up 1.26 per cent while China’s CSI 300 was higher by 0.28 per cent. The Hang Seng index rose by 2.16 per cent.  The rebound in US stocks came after retail sales rose by less than forecast in February and the prior month was revised lower. However, the so-called control-group sales increased by 1 per cent last month, according to Bloomberg. The S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 rose by 0.64 per cent and 0.31 per cent, respectively, as of Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced by 0.85 per cent.

 

Financials heavyweights gain: The rally in the domestic stocks was broad-based buying led by heavyweights in the financial space. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank contributed the most in terms of gains made by the Nifty index as the lenders rose as much as 2.83 per cent and 1.58 per cent on Tuesday.  Kotak Mahindra Bank was also among the top gainers with a rise of 1.26 per cent during the day. Meanwhile, the Nifty Bank rose as much as 1.45 per cent while financial stocks were the top sectoral gainer among the sectors. 

 

Strong DII Buying: Domestic investors continued to show resilience despite the unabated selling by global funds. While global funds have sold Rs 1.69 trillion in 2025 so far, domestic institutions have bought Rs 1.83 trillion, according to the data on NSE. On Monday, DIIs bought stocks worth Rs 6,000 crore, while foreign portfolio investors sold stock worth Rs 4,488 crore in the cash market.

 

Economic Revival: A sharp deceleration in food price rise helped moderate India's retail inflation to a seven-month low of 3.61 per cent in February, triggering hopes of another repo rate cut. Meanwhile, the Index for Industrial Production (IIP) numbers for January, released separately by the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed factory output growth surged to an eight-month high of 5.01 per cent from 3.54 per cent in December.