Sensex, Nifty Extend Gains To Third Day In A Row
The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes rose for third fay in a row on Wednesday led by gains in Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and Maruti Suzuki. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening and traded firmly for most part of the day but came off intraday highs in the last hour of trade owing to some profit booking in Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Hindustan Unilever. The Sensex moved in a range of 238 points and Nifty moved above its important psychological level of 11,400.
The Sensex ended 86 points or 0.22 per cent higher at 38,615 and Nifty 50 index advanced 0.2 per cent or 23 points to close at 11,408.
The stock markets have been on an upswing despite the rising Covid-19 cases as the economy has been opening up after government allowed relaxations from Covid-19-induced lockdowns. The Sensex and Nifty are currently trading at new 5-month highs.
Seven of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Media index's over 5 per cent gain. PSU Banking, real estate, telecom and private banking shares also witnessed buying interest.
On the other hand, FMCG, pharma and information technology shares witnessed a mild selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares outperformed their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.6 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose over 1 per cent.
Zee Entertainment was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 14 per cent to close at Rs 198 after it reported net profit of Rs 29 crore against loss of Rs 766 crore during the previous quarter.
GAIL India, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, UPL, Indian Oil, HDFC Life, State Bank of India and Reliance Industries also rose between 1-5 per cent.
On the flipside, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, Nestle India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Coal India, Hindustan Unilever, Wipro, Infosys and Eicher Motors were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,791 shares ended higher while 997 closed lower on the BSE.
