Sensex up 400 pts, HUL shines; Mid-, Smallcaps slip into red

The S&P BSE Sensex rallied to a high of 60,579, after a muted start to the trading day on Tuesday. The index, thereafter, pared gains and was up 350-odd points near 60,450 level.

The Nifty50 was seen testing the 18,000-mark in intra-day deals so far.

HUL, HCL Tech, L&T Reliance Industries, Tech M, and NTPC were the notable gainers on the 30-pack index as they gained between 0.3 per cent and 2 per cent. On the contrary, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Titan, M&M, Sun Pharma, and Axis Bank fell up to 0.85 per cent, capping upside.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap and the BSE SmallCap indices underperformed the frontline indices by falling 0.1 per cent each.

Sectorally, the Nifty IT index was the top gainer (up 0.54 per cent), while the Nifty Metal index was the worst hit (down 0.6 per cent).

Among individual stocks, shares of Reliance Industries and ONGC gained up to 0.85 per cent. In a late night notification on Monday, Centre announced a cut in its windfall tax on crude to Rs 1,900 ($23.28) per tonne from Rs 2,100 per tonne, effective Tuesday.

That apart, shares of M&M fell 0.6 per cent after the company announced pricing for XUV400, its first electric SUV, at Rs 15.99 lakh.

Those of Siemens zoomed over 3 per cent after it signed a Rs 26,000-crore contract to manufacture 1,200 electric freight locomotives for the Indian Railways.