Indian market closed higher for the third consecutive session today, backed by gains in capital goods and oil & gas shares. Sensex ended 157 points higher at 58,807 and Nifty surged 47 points to 17,516. ITC, L&T, Asian Paints and RIL were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 4.60%. HDFC Bank, Titan, Nestle India were the top losers on Sensex, falling up to 1.67%. Of 30 Sensex stocks, 15 closed higher.
Market cap of the BSE-listed firms rose to Rs 265.23 lakh crore today. On Wednesday, the market cap climbed to Rs 264.20 lakh crore. BSE mid cap and small cap indices rose 97 points and 229 points, respectively.
On the sectoral front, capital goods and metal shares led the gains. BSE capital goods rose 551 points to 28,421 and BSE oil and gas index gained 176 points to 18,189. BSE FMCG index surged 201 points to 13,994.
Gains were capped by losses in banking and consumer durables shares. BSE bankex ended 222 points lower and BSE consumer durables index fell 115 points.
Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research, Sharekhan said, “The Nifty witnessed a tough battle between the bulls & the bears near the key hurdle zone of 17500-17600. With the recent bounce, the index has reached its crucial daily moving averages, which acted as a cap for the day. 17,500-17,600 had acted as a strong resistance in the recent past that had induced the bears into action. Thus it is vital to monitor the price action over here. If Nifty crosses the level of 17,600 on a closing basis then it will allow the index to march further towards 18,000. On the other hand, failure to hold the ground over here will push the index down to 17,300-17,250 in order to fill up a recent gap area on the daily chart.”
The market breadth was positive with 2,111 shares ending higher against 1,165 stocks in the red. 122 shares were unchanged.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 579 crore on December 8, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,735 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.
On Wednesday, Sensex ended 1,016 points higher at 58,649 and Nifty surged 293 points to 17,469. Bajaj Finance, Maruti,SBI and Bajaj Finserv were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 3.62%. Kotak Bank and Power Grid were the only losers on Sensex, falling up to 0.85%.
Global markets
Asian markets closed on a mixed note today. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 20 points to 7,384. Nikkei ended 135 points lower at 28,725 and Shanghai Composite rose 35 points to 3,637. Hang Seng index gained 257 points to 24,254. In Europe, FTSE fell 5 points to 7,332, DAX was down 33 points, and CAC was up 6 points to 7,020.
