Bulls in action! RIL, private banks drive Sensex 500 points higher

Among the Sensex stocks, , and Reliance Industries were the top gainers, rising over 1% each. , , L&T, and also opened higher, while , , , and opened lower.

Central Depository Services () shares fell 6.4% amid a report that Standard Chartered Bank sold its entire 7.18% stake in the company via block deals.

rose over 4% after the Competition Commission of India approved the proposed acquisition of 100% equity share capital of Lanco Amarkantak Power.

Sector-wise, Oil & Gas rose 1.6%, and Nifty Medis surged 1.3%. Nifty Auto, Bank, Financial, FMCG, Metal, and Realty also surged. Meanwhile, in the broader market, Nifty Smallcap100 and Midcap100 gained 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively.

Experts View
"Market is likely to continue in the consolidation mode for a couple of days more and then take a new directional trend starting April. The undertone of the market continues to be bullish supported by strong economic fundamentals," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at .

"Midcaps have again become the segment of activity, particularly by retail investors. This is because there is no institutional selling pressure in midcaps unlike in largecaps where institutions including FIIs have large holdings," Vijayakumar said.

Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said, "Nifty can find support at 21,900 followed by 21,850 and 21,800. On the higher side, 22,100 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 22,150 and 22,200."

Global Markets
Wall Street equities closed lower overnight, extending losses for the second session in a row. Asian markets declined at the open, with the MSCI ex-Japan shedding 0.2%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng and mainland Chinese blue chips each lost about 0.4%, reversing gains from the previous session.

FII/DII Tracker
Foreign portfolio investors bought Indian shares worth Rs 10.13 crore on a net basis on Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors bought a net Rs 5,024 crore of stocks.

Crude Oil
Crude oil fell for a second day after a report that crude stockpiles surged in the US, the world's biggest oil user, and on signs major producers are unlikely to change their output policy at a technical meeting next week.

Brent crude futures for May dropped 69 cents, or 0.8%, to $85.56 a barrel. The May contract is set to expire on Thursday and the more actively traded June contract declined 60 cents, or 0.7%, to $85.03.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for May delivery fell 55 cents, or 0.7%, to $81.07.

Currency Watch
The Indian rupee fell 5 paise to 83.34 against the US dollar in early trade. The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, surged 0.06% to 104.36 level.

(With inputs from agencies)