Closing Bell: Bulls make a late entry on Dalal Street, Nifty tops 17300

Equity benchmark indices improved from intraday losses in the mid-afternoon deals and closed higher on Tuesday.

The domestic bourses surged gradually among strong buying seen in IT and automobile stocks giving rising as much as 1.96 per cent and 1.19 per cent, respectively. The Nifty FMCG and Nifty Consumer Durables slumped by 0.73 per cent and 0.71 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, crude oil trading above USD 110 per barrel due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. On the international front, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell hinted at a rate hike of 50 basis points. 

The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, went down by 2.24 per cent to 24.07 levels. The Nifty 50 index ended up gaining by 197 points and closed at 17,315 levels. Bank Nifty has also surged by 330 points and ended the day at 36,348. The Sensex settled at 57,989 jumping by 696 points. Similarly, the BSE MidCap index has increased today by 39 points and ended the day at 23,701 levels, while BSE SmallCap gained 41 points and closed at 27,852 at day end. 

On the BSE Sensex today, the top stocks were ITC, TCS, Induslnd Bank, Power Grid Corporation of India, and Kotak Bank. On the other hand, the top losers were Sun Pharmaceuticals, NTPC, Nestle India, and Hindustan Unilever. 

The total stocks traded today were 3,513 out of which 1,630 advanced and 1,778 stocks declined, 105 stocks were unchanged. The number of stocks that were locked in the upper circuit are 294 and 245 stocks were locked in the lower circuit today. The numbers of stocks that have made a 52-week high are 127 and 35 stocks made a 52-week low today.