Sensex, Nifty Gain For Third Day, Led By Airtel; India VIX Falls Nearly 20%: Market Wrap

The benchmark equity indices ended a little higher on Tuesday as shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd. led the gains, but the upside was limited due to losses in Reliance Industries Ltd. The NSE Nifty 50 closed 31.60 points or 0.14%, up at 22,368.00, while the S&P BSE Sensex was 89.83 points or 0.12%, higher at 73,738.45.

During the day, the Sensex rose as much as 0.56% to 74,059.89 and the Nifty jumped 0.50% to 22,447.55.

The Nifty found resistance at the bearish gap zone of 22,430–22,500, according to Aditya Gaggar, director of Progressive Shares. "Our view remains the same—need to fill the mentioned gap zone to extend its uptrend, while a level of 22,190 (50 DMA) will continue to act as support."

The India NSE Volatility Index ended 19.72% lower on Tuesday. "The suddenness of VIX’s fall today, especially when Nifty barely rose above 0.5%, needs to be factored in when acting on the VIX’s signal," Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

He added VIX is calculated on the basis of bid ask quotes of near as well as next-month Nifty option contracts, and contracts expiring from April 26 would be having a lot size of 25, half of what is in play now, which could have a role in bid asks getting tighter.

Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd., Grasim Industries Ltd., ITC Ltd., State Bank of India, and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. contributed the most to the gains in the Nifty.

Reliance Industries Ltd., Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., HDFC Bank Ltd., Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., and Bajaj Finance Ltd. capped the upside.

Sectoral indices on the NSE ended mixed, with the Nifty Realty rising the most by nearly 3%.

The broader markets outperformed the benchmarks as the BSE MidCap ended 0.52% higher and the SmallCap settled 1.05% up.

Sixteen out of the 20 sectors on the BSE advanced. Telecommunication index was the top gainer and Energy index was the top loser.

The market breadth was skewed in favour of the buyers as 2,347 stocks rose, 1,453 declined and 126 remained unchanged on the BSE.