Stock markets climb in early trade on foreign fund inflows

MUMBAI: Market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty climbed in early deals on Tuesday helped by foreign fund inflows and crude oil prices coming back to the pre-war levels amid easing tensions in the West Asia.

The 30-share BSE Sensex advanced 176 points to 78,461.16 in opening trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty went up by 34.1 points to 24,464.45.

From the Sensex pack, Titan, Infosys, Eternal, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech and Tata Consultancy Services were among the major winners.

From the laggards, Trent tumbled 9.8 per cent. Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Electronics, ITC and Tata Steel were also among the laggards.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 243.03 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, quoted at USD 72.45 per barrel level.

"There are distinct signs of an uptrend in the market. Two factors which were weighing on Indian markets - the crude price hike and sustained FPI selling- are now behind us and has reversed. Crude is back to the pre-war level and FPIs have turned buyers," VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said.

The FPI buying is not yet a strong trend, but the fact that they have stopped selling and turned buyers is a significant shift, which is likely to sustain supported by fundamentals, he added.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi tanked 7 per cent. Japan's Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index were also trading lower.

US markets ended higher on Monday.

On Monday, the Sensex jumped 521.16 points, or 0.67 per cent, to settle at 78,285.07. The Nifty climbed 159.50 points, or 0.66 per cent, to end at 24,430.35.