Senex, Nifty End Higher On Fed Rate Cut Hopes

(RTTNews) - Indian shares eked out modest gains on Tuesday, with trade deal hopes and expectations of Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts helping underpin investor sentiment.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that the United States will bring down tariffs on India, and that Washington and New Delhi are close to signing a trade deal.

"Right now, the tariffs are very high on India because of the Russian oil, and they have stopped doing the Russian oil… It's being reduced very substantially. We will bring the tariffs down at some point," Trump said during a White House press briefing.

Fed rate cut expectations and U.S. shutdown resolution also boosted sentiment. In an interview with CNBC, U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran has called for continuing with rate cuts, citing better-than-expected inflation data and signs of continued weakness in the labor market.

Emerging stresses in housing and private credit markets warrant a half-point cut next month but "at a minimum" the central bank should lower rates by an additional quarter percentage point, he said.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 335.97 points, or 0.40 percent, to 83,871.32, after having snapped a three-day losing streak the previous day.

The broader NSE Nifty index inched up by 120.60 points, or 0.47 percent, to 25,694.95. The BSE mid-cap index edged up 0.2 percent while the small-cap index settled 0.1 percent lower.

The market breadth was weak on the BSE, with 2,234 shares declining while 1,950 shares rose and 179 shares closed unchanged.

Among the top gainers, HCL Technologies, Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra and BEL rallied 2-3 percent.

Bajaj FinServ and Bajaj Finance slumped 6-7 percent after announcing their quarterly results.