Benchmark stock indexes continued to rise on Tuesday, opening higher on Tuesday, despite disappointing data on the international investment position and inflation. IT and banking stocks led to gains.

At 9:17 am, the BSE Sensex was trading up 349.13 points, or 0.58%, at 60,464.26. The Nifty50 was trading at 18,035.5, up 99.15 points or 0.55%.

V K Vijayakumar, the chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services (NSE 1.68%), said the ongoing market rally was primarily driven by a sudden reversal of FII strategies: from relentless sellers to relentless buyers.

“A strong economy supporting retail investors and fundamental support for the market are helping the rebound. This is a typical momentum-driven market that could soon push the index to new record highs,” Vijaykumar said.

Vijaykumar added that the FOMO factor (as this rally was mostly unexpected) and short covering could further help the market momentum.

Among Sensex shares, Bajaj Finserv (NSE 5.48%) rose 4.5% to Rs 1,793. Bajaj Finance (NSE 1.67%), SBI (NSE 0.5%), Titan (NSE 2.2%) and Wipro (NSE 0.58%) rose 1.19%, 0.76%, 0.72% and 0.7% respectively. Tech Mahindra (NSE -0.07%), Infosys (NSE 0.67%) and NTPC (NSE 0.69%) rose 0.68%, 0.63% and 0.62%, respectively.

Sector-wise, the Nifty Financial Services index soared 0.78%, while the Nifty IT gained 0.43%. The Nifty Midcap50 and Smallcap50 gained 0.44% and 0.40%, respectively.

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, was down 0.15% at 108.16.

US markets closed higher on Monday, with the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq up 1.27%, 0.71% and 1.06%, respectively.