The stock market extended its upward trend for the second consecutive trading session on Tuesday.

At close, the Sensex was up 361 points, or 0.4%, at 81,921, while the Nifty gained 104 points to reach 25,041.

On Nifty 50, the top gainers were Wipro, Bharti Airtel, LTIMindtree, and Divis Labs, rising 2-5 per cent.

On the flip side, Bajaj Finance, Shriram Finance, Bajaj Finserv, SBI Life, and HDFC Life were the biggest losers, declining 1-5 per cent.

Among the sectors, excluding Nifty PSU Bank, the remaining 12 sectoral indices closed in the green.

The broader market outpaced the benchmark indices, with the BSE Midcap rising by 0.5% and the Smallcap index climbing 1.5 per cent.

India VIX dropped by nearly 7 per cent, settling at 13.3 in today’s session.

On Sensex, shares of HCL Tech, Bharti Airtel and Tech Mahindra as the top gainers. On the losing side were the shares of Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance and Hindustan Unilever.

The market saw broad-based gains as the midcap and small-cap segments also ended with healthy gains. BSE Midcap index rose 0.53 per cent and the Smallcap index jumped 1.53%.

Nifty Midcap 100 index closed the trading session at 59,039 points, marking a 1.19 per cent increase from the previous close. Renewable energy stocks SJVN and Suzlon Energy were top performers, rising by 5.9 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.

Nifty Smallcap 100 index gained 1.15 per cent, with Piramal Pharma leading the advance with a 6.5 per cent increase. Himadri Speciality Chemicals, ITI, Firstsource Solutions, and Century Textiles & Industries also performed well, each rising by over 5 per cent.

The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed forms rose to nearly Rs 463.6 lakh crore from nearly Rs 460.2 lakh crore in the previous session.

Apart from the Nifty PSU Bank, the remaining 12 sectoral indices closed in the green.

In the Nifty IT index, all 10 stocks finished in positive territory ending the session by 1.73 per cent gain, closing at 42,664 points. The index marked its largest intraday gain for September.

The rise is amid the expectations of a rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve and increased technology spending.

A day after the government in the 54th GST Council meeting decided to reduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) levied on Extruded Namkeen snacks to 12 per cent, snack stocks rallied.

Bikaji Foods International, Gopal Snacks and Prataap Snacks shares rallied up to 10 per cent on Tuesday after a cut in GST on namkeen.

Suzlon Energy gained 5 per cent as Morgan Stanley maintained an ‘Overweight’ rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 73, following a significant 1.17 GW order win from NTPC.

The stock of IREDA surged over 5 per cent, a day after the company signed a MoU with SJVN Ltd, GMR Energy Ltd, and their associated companies.

Investors will be watching closely the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Wednesday and the Producer Price Index (PPI) prints on Thursday.

Both these numbers are crucial and can influence the Fed’s interest rate decisions.