Indian equity markets were on Tuesday buoyed by strong buying support across sectors, coupled with positive global cues and an appreciating rupee.

Both the key Indian indices closed the day’s trade with substantial gains — surging more than 1.5 per cent each — to touch new intra-day highs, with healthy buying witnessed in automobile, banking and healthcare stocks.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) edged up 139.90 points, or 1.59 per cent to 8,744.35 points.

The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 28,012.46 points, closed at 28,343.01 points — up 440.35 points, or 1.58 per cent from the previous close at 27,902.66 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,478.02 points and a low of 28,010.66 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bulls — with 1,627 advances and 1,071 declines.

“Overall, firm sentiments were seen in the Indian equity markets in intra-day trade,” said Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls.

“CNX Nifty traded with firm sentiments and held the gains throughout the session.”

On Monday, both the key indices had ended in the green, as the markets witnessed a sudden spurt of buying activity during the last hour of trade due to short covering and sector-specific buying.

The barometer index had gained 120.41 points, or 0.43 per cent, while the NSE Nifty edged up by 34.90 points, or 0.41 per cent.

Initially on Tuesday, the key indices opened on a higher note taking positive cues from the global markets, which were largely supportive on the back of higher US markets.

In addition, the upward trend of the domestic indices continued as the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) resorted to buying activities unleashing a fresh inflow of funds.

“Renewed buying interest from FIIs helped benchmark indices to break off the excruciating range seen all through August, and this seemed to have attracted further participation from those waiting for a clearer signal,” Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, said.

Moreover, a good monsoon and a strong rupee gave a fillip to investors’ sentiments and pushed the equity markets higher.

The rupee appreciated by 14 paise to 67.03 against a US dollar from its previous close of 67.17 on Monday.

“Strong domestic cues such as a good monsoon and additional government spending on construction activities are providing strong suport to the equity markets,” Manish Hathiramani, Proprietary Trader and Technical Analyst at Deen Dayal Investments, told IANS.

“There is also strong liquidity across global markets due to which there are gains across all the sectors.”

In terms of investments, provisional data with exchanges showed that the FIIs purchased stocks worth Rs 390.63 crore and the Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought scrips worth Rs 485.14 crore.

Sector-wise, healthy buying was witnessed in all the sub-indices, except the telecom index, which slipped by 14.89 points.

The S&P BSE automobile index augmented by 390.22 points, followed by the banking index, which rose by 328.46 points, and the healthcare index gained 222.26 points.

Major Sensex gainers during Tuesday’s trade were: Bajaj Auto, up 3.39 per cent at Rs 2,982.15; Asian Paints, up 3.20 per cent at Rs 1,146.80; Maruti Suzuki, up 2.83 per cent at Rs 5,068.90; HDFC Bank, up 2.35 per cent at Rs 1,267.50; and ICICI Bank, up 2.30 per cent at Rs 256.15.

Bharti Airtel was the sole Sensex loser at Rs.332.10 — down 2.82 per cent.