Market benchmarks climb in early trade on foreign fund inflows, rally in US equities

Mumbai, Jul 26 (PTI) Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty climbed in early trade on Wednesday helped by fresh foreign fund inflows and rally in the US markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 270.39 points to 66,626.10. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 69 points to 19,748.85.

From the Sensex pack, Larsen & Toubro jumped 4 per cent and Tata Motors climbed nearly 2 per cent. ITC, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries and Power Grid were the other major gainers.

Infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) on Tuesday posted a 36 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 3,116.12 crore for the June quarter, mainly aided by execution of a healthy order book in its projects and manufacturing portfolio.

Tata Motors reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,300.65 crore for the quarter, riding on sharp improvements in performance of its British arm Jaguar Land Rover and commercial vehicles business.

From the 30-share club, HDFC Bank and Asian Paints were the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading lower.

The US markets ended in the positive territory on Tuesday.

“Globally, market participants will be closely watching the Fed chief Jerome Powell’s comments about the disinflation process in the US and the likely trend in interest rates. A 25 basis points rate hike, already discounted by the market, will not trigger any market move.

“But if the Fed chief indicates that inflation is coming under control and, therefore, no further rate hikes are needed, that will be a big trigger for markets to move up. But such an outcome is highly unlikely since the Fed will play it safe even if inflation is coming under control,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.42 per cent lower at USD 83.29 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were buyers on Tuesday as they bought equities worth Rs 1,088.76 crore, according to exchange data.

The Sensex had slipped 29.07 points or 0.04 per cent to settle at 66,355.71 on Tuesday. The Nifty inched up by 8.25 points or 0.04 per cent to end at 19,680.60.