Gains across the information technology sector, buoyed by expectations around corporate earnings, pushed benchmark indices to a notably higher close on Tuesday, lifting Indian equity markets.

Trading on Indian exchanges wrapped up with the BSE Sensex adding 1,109.10 points — a 1.54 per cent lift — to land at 73,033.78, while the NSE Nifty 50 moved 358.60 points higher, or 1.60 per cent, finishing the session at 22,721.95.

HCL Technologies' quarterly figures gave the Nifty IT index enough momentum to climb more than 5 per cent, lifting technology stocks toward the head of a wider market rally. Vikram Kasat, Chief Business Officer for Advisory and Dealing at PL Capital, attributed the market's partial rebound to targeted buying in areas where earnings trajectories were clearer, noting that a roughly 4.7 per cent advance in the Nifty IT index pointed to investors concentrating their positions around that earnings clarity rather than deploying capital broadly across the market.

Trading on the National Stock Exchange wrapped up with nearly every sectoral index posting a gain, with Nifty Pharma the lone exception after it dipped by 0.05 per cent. Gains spread across multiple sectoral indices, with Realty out in front at 2.48 per cent, followed by PSU Bank at 1.46 per cent, FMCG at 1.40 per cent, Auto at 1.23 per cent, Metal at 1.17 per cent, and Media rounding out the list at 0.55 per cent.

India VIX — the index that tracks expected near-term price swings — fell by around 8 per cent, a move Kasat interpreted as a sign that short-horizon uncertainty was easing. Patchy performance among smaller-cap equities pointed to an uneven distribution of appetite for risk across the broader market.

Crude oil prices at elevated levels, combined with September retail inflation registering at 5.54 per cent, were flagged as factors that could constrain room for monetary policy manoeuvre and weigh on corporate profit margins. Looking ahead, the view expressed was that durable earnings growth and wider participation across sectors would be the determining factors in whether the rally holds, with a preference noted for companies backed by solid fundamentals over positions taken at stretched valuations.

Riyank Arora, Associate Vice President for HNI and Derivatives at Hedged.in, noted that the Nifty index moving back above the 22,700 mark pointed to buying pressure holding firm, with the benchmark continuing to hold above its key support levels. Two price floors appear on the chart — a near-term band spanning 22,600 to 22,650, with a more substantial cushion taking shape down around the 22,450 level.

Overhead, the 22,800–22,900 band has been acting as a price ceiling where selling pressure tends to build. Arora noted that a sustained break above that price band would likely create room for the asset to extend its gains.

Brent crude was trading near USD 104.55 a barrel as of the latest update. Prices in the local bullion market placed 24-karat gold at Rs 1,49,535 for every 10 grams, with silver changing hands at Rs 2,22,849 per kilogram.

For a second straight session, the rupee held its ground against the US dollar, hovering near the mid-85 range. Rajeev Sharan, who heads research at Brickwork Ratings, pointed to recent RBI interventions targeting dollar demand as the primary driver behind the rupee's recovery, noting that the currency had held in the mid-85s on Tuesday — its second consecutive session of gains — following a near-one-per-cent advance the previous day that stood as the largest single-session move in more than six months.

Under the new arrangement, the RBI began channelling dollars directly to state-owned oil companies — covering their daily foreign currency needs of around USD 300 million — which Sharan observed had drawn down pressure on the spot forex market. The central bank also moved to cap the positions traders can hold in currency derivatives, seeking to limit activity driven by speculation rather than genuine economic demand.

Across the rest of Asia, trading in most of the region's prominent markets closed on a downward note. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 shed roughly 1.93 per cent of its value, settling at 67,721, while Taipei's weighted index gave back 1.99 per cent to finish at 48,341. Trading on the KOSPI index in South Korea came to a close with the benchmark sitting at 6,035, reflecting a loss of 5.78 per cent on the session.

Modest advances marked two markets at the close, with Singapore's Straits Times index adding 0.28 per cent to settle at 5,430 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng posting a 0.20 per cent uptick that brought it to 24,319.