Sensex gains 500 pts; HDFC Bank slips 2%, Cipla up 7%

Indian equities were seen holding gains Tuesday amid hefty buying in shares of ICICI Bank.

The S&P BSE Sensex was off highs, bu still up 440 points, or 0.64 per cent, to quote at 71,8565 levels. The Nifty50, too, advanced 117 points, or 0.54 per cent, to trade at 21,688 levels.

ICICI Bank, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, TCS, HCL Tech, RIL, Bajaj Finserv, and Tech M were leading the charge on the frontline indices with up to 3.5 per cent rally.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices added up to 0.8 per cent.

The MidCap index hit record high of 38,647 in intraday deals.

Individually, shares of Zee Entertainment tumbled 10 per cent after Sony Pictures Networks India on Monday issued a termination notice to Zee Entertainment on their merger agreement. Sony has also sought $90 million in termination fees from Zee.

Shares of Cipla, on the other hand, surged 7 per cent after the company’s Q3 net profit jumped 32 per cent to Rs 1,055.90 crore for the quarter ended December 2023 when compared to the year ago quarter. Revenue grew 13 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 6,505.66 crore.

Among sectors, the Nifty Pharma index gained 1.6 per cent, followed by the Nifty Bank index (up 0.75 per cent). On the downside, the Nifty Media index dropped over 3 per cent.