Sensex jumps 522 points, Nifty just shy of 10,000 mark

Equity benchmark indices rallied for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday lifted mainly by realty, private banks and financial services after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured that India will soon get its economic growth back.

Investors overlooked India's sovereign rating downgrade by Moody's to Baa3 from Baa2 assigned in November 2018.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 522 points or 1.57 per cent higher at 33,826 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 153 points or 1.56 per cent at 9,979.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty realty up by 4.9 per cent, private bank by 3.2 per cent and financial service by 3.1 per cent.

Among stocks, the Bajaj twins were on a high note for the second consecutive day with Bajaj Finserv moving up by 9.5 per cent to Rs 5,216 per share and Bajaj Finance by 8.1 per cent to Rs 2,337.

Kotak Mahindra Bank added 7.7 per cent after its Managing Director Uday Kotak reportedly agreed to sell stake worth around Rs 6,000 crore in the private sector lender. The aim is to comply with a settlement agreement struck with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in January on promoter stake dilution.

Tata Motors rose by 7.3 percent after the company resumed operations at all its plants.

The other prominent gainers were Zee Entertainment, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC and Power Grid Corporation. But those which lost were Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, ITC and Dr Reddy's.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks gained marginally as investors hoped for economic recovery amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan's Nikkei rose by 1.19 per cent to its highest since late February, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 1.11 per cent and South Korea's Kospi by 1.07 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )