Indian stocks advanced Tuesday as sentiment was buoyed on hopes that the U.S. will avoid "fiscal cliff," while encouraging housing data also added to the sentiment.
The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 0.18 percent or 33.33 points to 18372.33 and the 50 share NSE Nifty advanced 0.20 percent or 10.95 points to 5582.60.
Markets opened on a positive note, tracking the positive cues from the Asian peers as sentiment turned positive overnight on hopes that the White House and Republicans would find common ground to avoid a “fiscal cliff,” a term used to describe a raft of tax increases and spending cuts that will automatically be poised to start next year if nothing is done.
U.S. stock markets rallied Monday as all Dow Jones Industrial average surged 1.7 percent or 207 points. Better than expected U.S. housing data offered further support. The National Association of Realtors home sales report that measures the change in the annualized number of existing residential buildings sold during the previous month rose to 4.79 million units in October, up from 4.69 million units in September.
However, news that France’s credit ratings were downgraded by Moody’s Investor Services revived concerns over euro zone crisis and limited upward move. Moody’s cut the credit rating of France to Aa1 from Aaa while maintaining a negative outlook for the economy late Monday, citing the risk to the economic growth of the second-largest economy in Europe.
Among the major movers, HDFC surged 2.59 percent and Tata Power gained 1.55 percent while Infosys and Hindalco Industries fell 1.44 percent and 1.07 percent respectively.
Telecom shares declined after recent rally. Reliance Communications Ltd. plunged 2.33 percent and Idea Cellular Ltd. fell 1.69 percent while Bharti Airtel gained for the seventh consecutive sessions.
Auto sector shares continued to gain on hopes of rising sales this month as part of the festival season. Mahindra & Mahindra advanced 1.73 percent and Tata Motors gained 0.49 percent while Maruti Suzuki rose 0.36 percent.
Among the sectoral indices, FMCG, Auto and Power sectors were trading with gains while all other sectors were in the negative territory. The overall market breadth was negative with 1485 declines against 1106 advances.
In FMCG sector, Colgate Palmolive advanced 1.49 percent and Hindustan Unilever rose 0.94 percent while Dabur India declined 0.48 percent.
Crude oil prices declined slightly Tuesday after recent rally as the dollar moved higher which makes commodities more expensive to holders of other currencies. Light sweet crude for the January delivery fell 0.28 percent or 25 cents to $89.03 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange during the Asian trading hours.
The BSE's Midcap Index declined 0.24 percent to 6,583.32 and Smallcap Index fell 0.18 percent to 7,037.82. CNX midcap Index declined 0.38 percent and CNX IT fell 0.38 percent.
