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Extending previous session’s bullish run, Indian equity benchmarks ended the Tuesday’s trade near intraday highs with frontline gauges settling above their crucial 48,900 (Sensex) and 14,650 (Nifty) levels. Markets started the session on positive note as slightly fall in daily coronavirus cases kept traders optimistic throughout the day. India reported a slight dip in the number of fresh Covid infections and fatalities on Tuesday with 319,435 cases and 2,764 deaths, Worldometer showed. Traders also took some support with report that the commerce ministry said it has started a COVID-19 helpdesk to help resolve issues of exporters and importers pertaining to international trade such as customs clearance delays and banking matters. Traders overlooked report that global forecasting firm Oxford Economics revised downwards its India GDP growth forecast for 2021 to 10.2 percent from 11.8 percent previously, citing the country's escalating health burden, faltering vaccination rate and lack of a convincing government strategy to contain the pandemic. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its ‘April 2021’monthly Bulletin has said that as India battles the ferocious rise of new infections, a strong policy response is building. Economic activity in India is holding up against COVID -19’s renewed onslaught. Apart from contact-intensive sectors, activity indicators largely remained resilient in March and grew beyond pre-pandemic levels.

Traders continue to buy fundamentally strong stocks throughout the day and markets breached crucial psychological levels one after other. Traders took some support with report that bank credit grew by 5.33 per cent to Rs 108.89 lakh crore, and deposits rose 10.94 per cent to Rs 152.15 lakh crore in the fortnight ended April 9, 2021. In the fortnight ended April 10, 2020, bank advances stood at Rs 103.38 lakh crore and deposits were Rs 137.15 lakh crore. Additional support also came as Biden administration seems to have adopted a mission mode approach and removed all bureaucratic hurdles to help India in its fight against deadly COVID-19 pandemic that has spread like wildfire across the country. Traders took note of report that the commerce ministry said it has started a COVID-19 helpdesk to help resolve issues of exporters and importers pertaining to international trade such as customs clearance delays and banking matters.

Positive opening in European counters too provided support to domestic sentiments as global markets prepare for the US Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting, which begins today, and investors digest a slew of earnings. Asian markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday, after Singapore's industrial production grew at a softer pace in March. The data from the Economic Development Board showed that industrial output rose 7.6 percent year-on-year in March, after a 16.5 percent growth in February. Production was forecast to increase 3.0 percent. Excluding biomedical manufacturing, industrial production grew 14.9 percent yearly in March, after a 13.9 percent increase in the preceding month. 

Back home, the CEOs of about 40 top American companies have come together to create a first-of-its-kind country-specific global task force to mobilise resources and coordinate efforts to help India fight the battle against COVID-19. Aviation stocks were in limelight as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced that the fare cap on domestic flights would be extended till May 31 and the flights would operate with 80 percent of pre-COVID level passenger capacity.

Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 557.63 points or 1.15% to 48,944.14, while the CNX Nifty was up by 168.05 points or 1.16% to 14,653.05.

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 49,009.26 and 48,399.53 respectively and there 23 stocks advancing against 7 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index jumped 1.04%, while Small cap index was up by 1.49%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 2.83%, Basic Materials up by 2.47%, Capital Goods up by 2.29%, Industrials up by 2.09% and Energy was up by 2.09%, while there was no loser on the BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro up by 3.33%, Bajaj Finance up by 3.02%, Indusind Bank up by 2.66%, Reliance Industries up by 2.66% and SBI up by 2.48%. On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.24%, NTPC down by 0.54%, Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.53%, Nestle down by 0.34% and Mahindra & Mahindra down by 0.28% were the top losers.

Meanwhile, citing the country’s escalating health burden, faltering vaccination rate and lack of a convincing government strategy to contain the pandemic, global forecasting firm -- Oxford Economics has revised downwards its India GDP growth forecast for 2021 to 10.2 per cent from 11.8 per cent previously. Oxford Economics also said that notwithstanding the likelihood of further mobility restrictions, it expects India’s targeted lockdown approach, less stringent restrictions, and resilient consumer and business behaviour to mitigate the economic impact of the second wave.

It added ‘India’s escalating health burden, faltering vaccination rate, and lack of a convincing government strategy to contain the pandemic have prompted us to downgrade our 2021 GDP growth forecast to 10.2 per cent from 11.8 per cent previously’. The global forecasting firm also expects GDP to contract sequentially in the second quarter. But if struggling health systems force more states to resort to stricter lockdowns like Maharashtra, we will likely lower our growth forecast further

Oxford Economics said India’s health system has collapsed in the worst-hit states, with even the national capital Delhi facing acute shortage of oxygen and COVID-19 hospital beds. It noted that ‘While the official mortality rate has edged lower, it masks a rapidly rising death count. Deaths are now doubling every ten days (as opposed to an average of 29 days in the first wave) and even this figure is likely buttressed by delayed or under-reporting of deaths’. India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals in several states are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 14,484.85 and 14,667.55 and there were 41 stocks advancing against 9 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Hindalco up by 5.14%, Tata Steel up by 3.93%, Larsen & Toubro up by 3.35%, Divis Lab up by 3.29% and Bajaj Finance up by 2.71%. On the flip side, HDFC Life Insurance down by 3.65%, SBI Life Insurance down by 1.46%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.06%, Nestle down by 0.54% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.53% were the top losers.

European markets were trading mostly in green, UK’s FTSE 100 increased 4.18 points or 0.06% to 6,967.30 and France’s CAC was up by 5.50 points or 0.09% to 6,281.02. On the flip side, Germany’s DAX was down by 30.01 points or 0.2% to 15,266.33.

Asian markets ended mostly lower on Tuesday with caution ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting on Wednesday. Investors will pay close attention to comments from Chairman Jerome Powell for directional cues. Further, concerns over surging Covid-19 cases in emerging economies including India, Japan and Brazil dented expectations for a swift global economic recovery from the pandemic. Japanese shares ended lower amid a slew of corporate earnings failed to meet investor expectations, while the Bank of Japan (BoJ) kept its monetary stimulus steady as widely expected. However, Chinese shares ended almost flat despite official data showed profits at China's industrial firms nearly doubled in March from a year ago.

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