Sensex, Nifty Gain For Fifth Straight Day; Realty Shares Outperform
The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes gained for fifth straight session on Thursday, led by strength in HDFC, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank. The benchmarks traded firm for most part of the day, but erased gains to end on a flat note owing to expiry of August future and option contracts. The Sensex traded in a band of 280 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 11,617.35 and low of 11,540.60.
The Sensex ended 40 points higher at 39,113 and Nifty 50 index rose 10 points to close at 11,559.
For the August series, the Sensex rose 3.65 per cent and Nifty rose 4.11 per cent.
In Friday's session, nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Realty index's 6 per cent gain. Shares of real estate companies rallied after the Maharashtra government slashed stamp duty on real estate transactions by 3 per cent until December 2020 in a bid to revive the flagging real estate market, which has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
State-run lenders, auto, pharma and banking shares also witnessed buying interest.
On the other hand, FMCG shares witnessed mild selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares ended mixed, as Nifty Midcap 100 index ended on a flat note while Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.53 per cent.
IndusInd Bank was top Nifty gainer; the stock rose 6.5 per cent to Rs 605. Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Grasim Industries, HDFC, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank and Maruti Suzuki also rose1.5-4.2 per cent each.
On the flip side, Reliance Industries was top Nifty loser; the stock fell 1.35 per cent to close at Rs 2,108. ONGC, Bajaj Auto, Zee Entertainment, Coal India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Adani Ports, Hero MotoCorp, Indian Oil, UltraTech Cement and Shree Cements were also among the losers.
