Sensex, Nifty Gain For Fourth Day In A Row Led By Auto, Banking Shares

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes rose for fourth day in a row on Wednesday led by gains in auto, banking, energy, information technology and media shares. For most part of the day, the benchmarks traded in a narrow range and switched direction over five times. However, late buying in Reliance Industries, Infosys, Kotak Mahndra Bank and ICICI Bank helped benchmarks stage a sharp up move in the last hour of trade and close near the intraday highs. With today's gains, Nifty closed above 11,500 for the first time since February 27.

The Sensex ended 230 points or 0.6 per cent higher at 39,074 and Nifty 50 index climbed 77 points or 0.67 per cent to settle at 11,550.

"The markets are rejoicing gradual opening up of the economy and easy liquidity conditions," AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital told NDTV over phone.

Buying interest was visible across sectors as thirteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended higher led by the S&P BSE Energy index's 2 per cent gain. Information technology, banking, auto, financial services and realty shares also witnessed buying interest.

On the other hand, telecom, capital goods and consumer durable shares witnessed selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.55 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 1 per cent.

Tata Motors was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 9 per cent to close at Rs 138. Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank, Zee Entertainment, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, Adani Ports, HCL Technologies and Infosys also rose between 1.7-6.4 per cent each.

On the flipside, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, Larsen & Toubro and NTPC were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,683 shares ended higher while 1,155 closed lower on the BSE.