Sensex, Nifty50 end slightly higher after another choppy day; HDFC Life, SBI Life top gainers

• Indian markets Sensex and Nifty50 end slightly higher after a choppy trading session on Tuesday.
• Among sectoral indices, auto, FMCG, energy and metal closed in the red while banks, IT and pharma were amongst the top gainers.
• HDFC Life and SBI Life topped the charts in the benchmark Nifty50 index, while metal stocks and Reliance Industries were amongst the top losers.

Indian markets Sensex and Nifty50 end slightly higher after a choppy session on Tuesday as investors turn eyes on upcoming quarterly earnings season amid mixed cues from global markets.

Besides, losses in shares of heavyweight stocks like Reliance Industries, ITC and steel companies capped the gains of the two benchmark indices.

While the 30-stock Sensex edged up 0.21% or 126 points to close at 61,294, the 50-stock Nifty50 index ended 0.19% or 35.10 higher to close at 18,232 points.

In the Nifty50 index, HDFC Life Insurance, SBI Life Insurance, Axis Bank and Titan were top gainers on the index.

Among sectoral indices, auto (-0.42%), FMCG (-0.41%), energy (-0.10%) and metal (-0.53%) closed in the red while banks (0.51%), IT (0.78%) and pharma (0.72%) were amongst the top gainers.

In the first trading session of the year, the benchmark indices closed higher led by a rally in metal stocks and heavyweights like RIL, Infosys, ICICI Bank.

Shares of oil companies RIL and ONGC witnessed a sell-off today after the government raised windfall tax on petroleum, crude oil and aviation turbine fuel. Windfall tax on crude oil has been raised to ₹2,100 per tonne from ₹1,700 per tonne earlier effective on Tuesday.

Export tax on diesel has been increased to ₹7.5 per litre from ₹5 per litre while tax on aviation turbine fuel has risen to ₹4.5 per litre from ₹1.5 per litre earlier.

Meanwhile, Brent crude oil price fell by 1.57% to $84.55 per barrel on Tuesday.

Here are the top gainers and losers on the Nifty50 index on Tuesday
Source: NSE

Global markets
While markets in the US were closed on account of holidays, European markets witnessed a rally. France’s CAC index surged 1.17%, while Germany’s DAX gained 1.39%.

Asian markets, however, were mixed, with some markets still closed due to holidays. While the Hang Seng index gained 1.82%, Nikkei 225 was flat and the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.88%. The Taiwan Weighted index was up 0.61%, while South Korea’s KOSPI declined 0.31%.

Meanwhile, investors are awaiting the minutes from the US Federal Reserve meeting scheduled on Wednesday.

On the global front, Russia’s defence ministry has said that 63 Russian soldiers have been killed in a Ukrainian New Year’s Eve attack in the Russian controlled part of Donetsk province.

Among individual stocks, The food delivery platform Zomato slipped 5% during the day and ended with over 2% fall as its chief technology officer Gunjan Patidar has tendered resignation. Patidar was among the first few employees of Zomato and built core tech systems for the company, the company said.

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