Sensex rises 445 pts, Nifty reclaims 17,800 mark; IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech top gainers
Benchmark indices ended higher for the second consecutive session today, powered by gains in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, TCS and Infosys amid a largely positive trend in global markets.
Sensex ended 445 points or 0.75 per cent higher at 59,744.88, while Nifty surged 131.05 points or 0.74 per cent to 17,822.30.
IndusInd Bank was the top Sensex gainer, rising by 4.60 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, Reliance Industries, Titan and Asian Paints.
Sun Pharma, ITC, PowerGrid, UltraTech Cement and Nestle India were among the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1.36%.
Of the 30 Sensex shares, 20 ended higher.
Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research, Sharekhan said, “The key hourly moving averages provided cushion on the downside. The Nifty formed a base there in the first half of the session & took a leap thereon in the second half. On the way up, the index crossed 61.8% retracement of the last week’s decline and reached near the 78.6% retracement mark i.e. 17,840. So that is an immediate resistance to watch out for.
“Overall structure shows that the Nifty is still in a short-term consolidation phase and is heading towards the upper end of the range i.e. 17,950 where it is likely to witness selling pressure. On the downside, 17700-17640 will act as a near term support zone,” Ratnaparkhi added.
BSE mid cap and small cap indices rose 84 points and 154 points, respectively.
On the sectoral front, oil and gas, IT and consumer durables shares led the gains, with BSE oil and gas index gaining 594 points to 19,019 and BSE IT index ending 373 points higher at 34,907
BSE consumer durables index closed 375 points higher at 42,028.
The market breadth was positive with 2,073 shares ending higher against 1,210 shares closing in the red. 166 shares were unchanged.
Market cap of BSE-listed firms rose to Rs 264.78 lakh crore.
Meanwhile, rupee fell 13 paise to close at 74.44 against the US dollar today weighed down by the strengthening of the greenback in the overseas market and rising crude oil prices.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local currency opened on a weak note and witnessed an intra-day high of 74.41 and a low of 74.63 against the US dollar in day trade. On Monday, the rupee had settled at 74.31 against the US dollar.
Global markets
Global shares were trading on a mixed note after a broad slide on Wall Street led by technology companies.
European shares opened higher after a mixed session in Asia. Germany’s DAX picked up 0.3% to 15,078.68 and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.6% to 6,513.04. In London, the FTSE 100 advanced 0.5% to 7,048.14.
In Asia, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 2.2% to 27,822.12 and the Kospi in Seoul dropped 1.9% to 2,962.17. The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia declined 0.4% to 7,248.40.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.3% to 24,104.15. Shanghai is closed until Friday for a national holiday.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.47 per cent to USD 81.64 per barrel.
