Metals, energy stocks power gains in Indian benchmarks

Indian benchmarks settled higher on Tuesday lifted by gains in energy and metal companies, with rising expectations of interest rate cuts in the United States boosting global markets.

The benchmark NSE Nifty 50 index .NSEI gained 0.43% to 21,441.35 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex .BSESN settled 0.32% higher at 71,336.80 points. Both the indexes had fallen nearly 1% from their peaks hit last week.

Metals .NIFTYMET and energy stocks .NIFTYENR gained over 1%, each, while public sector enterprise .NIFTYPSE rose 2%.

“The rise in metals can be attributed to the cooling in U.S. dollar index, which is leading to buying interest in metal stocks globally,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head of retail research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

A cooling U.S. inflation bolstered bets the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates early next year, helping global stocks. MKTS/GLOB

Ten out of the 13 major sectoral indexes appreciated, while 0.65% gains in more domestically-focussed mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 outperformed the blue-chips and small-caps .NIFSMCP100 remained largely flat.

Indian oil and gas explorers Oil India OILI.NS and Oil & Natural Gas Corp ONGC.NS rose 2.3% and 1.8%, respectively with crude oil prices jumping 3%.

Among individual stocks, Infosys INFY.NS declined 1.2% and led the fall in IT stocks after the company said its $1.5 billion deal with an unnamed global company stands terminated. The IT index declined 0.41%.

Divi's Laboratories and Hero MotoCorp HROM.NS led gains on Nifty 50 index, rising 4.56% and 3.35% each.