The frontline indices continued trade with modest gains in afternoon trade. The Nifty traded above the 22,700 level. Auto, realty and oil & gas stocks advanced while IT, metal and media shares declined.

At 13:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 273.77 points or 0.37% to 74,944.62. The Nifty 50 index added 96.70 points or 0.43% to 22,740.10.The Bank Nifty hit a record high of 49,672.85 in morning trade.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.96% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index added 0.62%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 2,034 shares rose and 1,693 shares fell. A total of 141 shares were unchanged.

The stock exchanges will remain closed on Wednesday, 1 May 2024 on account of Maharashtra Day.

Gainers & Losers:

Mahindra & Mahindra (up 4.83%), Power Grid Corporation of India (up 3.12%), Shriram Finance (up 2.51%), Hero Motocorp (up 2.21%) and Bajaj Auto (up 2.05%) were major Nifty gainers.

Tech Mahindra (down 1.59%), Tata Steel (down 1.19%), HCL Technologies (down 0.96%), Kotak Mahindra (down 0.70%) and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories (down 0.68%) were major Nifty losers.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Vesuvius India rallied 7.10% after the company reported a 58.7% jump in net profit to Rs 68.78 crore in Q1 CY24 from Rs 43.35 crore in Q1 CY23. Net sales increased by 23.9% YoY to Rs 453.09 crore during the period under review.

UCO Bank shed 0.05%. The private lender’s standalone net profit declined 9.54% to Rs 525.77 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared to Rs 581.24 crore reported in Q4 FY23. However, total income grew 17.45% to Rs 6,984.61 crore in the quarter ended 31 March 2024.

Birlasoft slipped 2.24%. The company said that its consolidated net profit jumped 11.82% to Rs 180.08 crore in Q4 FY24 as compared with Rs 161.05 crore in Q3 FY24. Revenue from operations rose 1.46% QoQ to Rs 1,362.54 crore in the quarter ended 31 March 2024.

Gillette India surged 7.13%. The company reported 3.5% decline in net profit to Rs 99.09 crore in the third quarter ended 31 march 2024 as against Rs 102.70 crore recorded in the same period a year ago. Revenue from operations grew by 10% year on year to Rs 680.74 crore in the quarter ended 31 March 2024.

Global Markets:

Most European stocks traded lower while Asian stocks advanced on Tuesday. Investors were awaiting China manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for April.

China’s factory activity climbed faster than expected in April, with the official purchasing managers’ index coming at 50.4. Factory activity expansion was lower than the 50.8 seen in March.

US stocks closed higher Monday, lifted by Tesla, while traders geared up for a week dominated by corporate earnings and a Federal Reserve meeting.