India's equity indices traded in the green on Tuesday, bolstered by gains in banking stocks and strong performances from UltraTech Cement, NTPC, and L&T on the BSE benchmark. At 9:59 a.m., the Sensex climbed 258 points, or 0.32%, reaching 81,308, while the Nifty gained 58.20 points, or 0.23%, to hit 24,853.

Leading the charge in the Sensex pack were UltraTech Cement, M&M, Axis Bank, HUL, SBI, L&T, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and IndusInd Bank. On the downside, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, JSW Steel, Wipro, Titan, HCL Tech, Infosys, TCS, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Maruti Suzuki, and Nestle registered losses.

Banking stocks drove the rally, with the Nifty Bank index up 262 points, or 0.56%, at 50,759. Sector-wise, financial services, PSU banks, FMCG, media, private banks, infrastructure, services, and healthcare stocks performed well, while auto, IT, metal, real estate, and energy sectors lagged behind.

Midcap and small-cap stocks also saw buying interest. The Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 376 points, or 0.66%, to 57,676, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index gained 108 points, or 0.60%, to 18,351.

Asian markets showed mixed performance, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Seoul trading in the red, while Bangkok and Jakarta traded in positive territory. US markets closed lower on Monday.

Market experts attributed the downturn to escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, foreign portfolio investor (FPI) outflows, and concerns over upcoming election results.

"The market has weakened due to negative cues, including a significant FPI selloff over the past six sessions. However, the net FPI selling of Rs 50,011 crore has been offset by domestic institutional investor (DII) buying of Rs 53,203 crore," they noted. Experts suggested accumulating high-quality, fairly valued blue-chip stocks in financial and IT sectors.