IT stocks drive markets higher as foreign funds flow in

MUMBAI: The Indian equity markets surged in early trading on Tuesday, buoyed by robust buying in leading IT companies, notably Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, coupled with fresh inflows from foreign investors.
The 30-share BSE Sensex rose by 243.4 points to reach 71,974.82 in the initial hours of trading, while the Nifty gained 72.9 points to hit 21,844.60.
Key gainers among the Sensex constituents included Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Airtel, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Maruti, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever, and Mahindra & Mahindra.
Bharti Airtel saw a notable uptick of over 2% following its announcement on Monday of a 54% surge in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,442.2 crore for the December quarter, largely driven by an increase in high-value customers.
However, some stocks such as Power Grid, NTPC, Axis Bank, and JSW Steel lagged behind.
In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo were in negative territory, while Shanghai and Hong Kong traded positively.
Meanwhile, the US markets closed lower on Monday.
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, remarked, "The positive takeaway is that the US economy is performing surprisingly well, making a significant global slowdown triggered by a potential US recession highly improbable."
According to exchange data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 518.88 crore on Monday.
On the previous trading day, the BSE benchmark slipped by 354.21 points or 0.49 per cent to settle at 71,731.42, while the Nifty fell by 82.10 points or 0.38 per cent to close at 21,771.70.