Sensex Rallies 1,109 Points (Oct 13, 2026): LTCG-STT Debate and IT Stocks Lift Nifty Above 22,700

The Sensex rally October 13 quickly erased a bad Monday. The BSE Sensex closed up 1,109.10 points, or 1.54%, at 73,033.78, and the NSE Nifty 50 added 358.60 points, or 1.60%, to end at 22,721.95, according to ET Now and The Indian Express. Two things did the lifting. IT heavyweights ran after HCLTech’s quarterly numbers, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she would hear stakeholders on long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax and securities transaction tax (STT). Neither tax changed. Our stock market today India hub has the daily tape and levels.

Sensex rally October 13 LTCG: where the indices closed

ET Now had the Sensex touching an intraday high of 73,045.67 (up 1,120.99 points, or 1.55%) and finishing just under it, which it called the index’s best single-day gain in four months. Mint called it the strongest Sensex move since 15 April, and the Nifty’s 1.6% rise its biggest single-day percentage gain since 3 August. The Indian Express said the Nifty dipped to an intraday low near 22,288 before turning and closing at the day’s high of 22,721.95. Compare that with Monday, when ET Now had the Sensex at 71,924.68 (down 547.65 points) and the Nifty at 22,363.35 (down 157.10 points). Tuesday more than wiped out that loss on both benchmarks.

This was a large-cap day. ET Now counted 46 of 50 Nifty constituents in the green, and Nifty IT gained over 5%, its best intraday rise in 17 months. Mint had Nifty IT up 5.2%, the top sectoral gainer on the NSE. Smaller stocks lagged — The Indian Express put the Nifty Midcap 100 up 1.06% and the Nifty Smallcap 100 up just 0.11%. The gain came mostly from IT and a few heavyweights.

HCLTech sets off the IT run

In the Sensex pack, ET Now had HCLTech up 8.28%. The company had just reported consolidated net profit of ₹5,132 crore for July–September FY27, up 21.18% year-on-year, helped by higher margins from advanced AI operations and a lower tax outgo. Other IT names followed: TCS rose 6.59%, Tech Mahindra 4.90% and Infosys 4.44%. We set up the pre-session view in our IT stocks to watch today note. On the other side, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Eternal and Maruti were among ET Now’s Sensex laggards.

The tax talk, and who was buying

Sitharaman was speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi. Per Mint, Fortune India and CNBC-TV18, she said she would be keen to hear views on LTCG and on the STT debate, and called the discussion healthy. Outlets were clear there was no commitment to scrap or cut either tax, and Budget consultations had only just begun. Mint also reminded readers that the July 2024 Union Budget raised the LTCG rate on listed equity and equity-oriented mutual funds held over a year to 12.5% from 10%. That is the change being debated; nothing new was announced Tuesday.

Flows told the familiar story of foreigners selling and domestic money absorbing it. Mint, citing provisional BSE data, said foreign portfolio investors were net sellers of ₹1,305 crore on Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors bought ₹2,439 crore — in line with our FII DII data October 13 wrap. ET Now separately put FII equity sales at ₹1,708.48 crore on Monday. Mint added that the Nifty had fallen in eight of the previous nine weeks on sustained foreign selling, and that the rupee gained about 0.5% on Tuesday, another firm session after RBI measures aimed at curbing speculative forex positioning.

Can Tuesday’s bounce hold?

Tuesday put the Nifty back above 22,700, but it stood on hope around consultation language on tax, and an IT bounce built on one company’s earnings. Until the Budget process produces a concrete proposal, the LTCG–STT optimism can fade as fast as it came. We’d watch three things — whether DIIs keep soaking up FPI selling, whether IT holds its gains after HCLTech’s print, and whether crude and global yields stay high. Those will decide whether this Sensex rally October 13 LTCG episode marks a real turn or just a one-day relief spike.