ADVERTISEMENT

Sensex, Nifty Surge For Third Straight Day Led By Banking Shares

The Nifty in March series crashed 23 per cent and the Sensex tumbled 22 per cent.
The Nifty in March series crashed 23 per cent and the Sensex tumbled 22 per cent.

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes surged for third day in a row led by gain in banking and financial services shares as futures and options contracts for the month of March expired. The Sensex surged as much as 1,564 points and the Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 8,749. HDFC Bank, HDFC, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, ICICI Bank and Larsen & Toubro were among the top contributors towards gain in the Sensex. They collectively contributed over 900 points towards the gain in the Sensex.

The Sensex ended 1,411 points or 5 per cent higher at 29,946.77 and the NSE Nifty 50 index climbed 3.89 per cent or 324 points to close at 8,641.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a relief package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore to help the economically weaker sections to tide over the added challenge of lockdown and job loss arising from the coronavirus outbreak.

The Nifty in March series crashed 23 per cent and the Sensex tumbled 22 per cent.

Meanwhile, in Thursday's session, all the 11 sector gauges compiled by the National stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Private Bank index's 8.3 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, IT and Realty sector gauges also rose between 2-7 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose over 3 per cent each.

IndusInd Bank was top Nifty gainer, the stock surged 46 per cent to close at Rs 440. Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Power Grid, HDFC, Bharti Infratel, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ITC also surged between 6.4-10 per cent each.

On the flipside, GAIL India, HCL Technologies, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, JSW Steel, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki and Adani Ports were among the losers.