Sensex, Nifty Gain For Fourth Day In A Row Led By HDFC, Reliance Industries

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes rose for a fourth consecutive day led by gains in Reliance Industries, HDFC, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank and Tata Consultancy Services. The benchmarks opened higher and turned rangebound and even declined in afternoon trading owing to selling pressure in banking shares. However, a late recovery in the Nifty Bank index helped the Sensex and Nifty recover in last 30 minutes of trade and to end on a positive note. During the session, Sensex touched high of 38,666.38 and a low of 38,416.67 and the Nifty 50 index touched high of 11,481.05 and low of 11,411.10.

The Sensex ended 93 points or 0.24 per cent higher at 38,599 and the Nifty 50 index advanced 0.31 per cent or 36 points to close at 11,464.

Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty IT index's 1 per cent gain. Nifty Financial Service, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Media indexes also rose around 0.7 per cent.

On the other hand, Nifty PSU Bank index was top loser, down 0.8 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares ended on a mixed note as the Nifty Midcap 100 index declined 0.15 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.28 per cent.

Bharat Petroleum was top gainer in today's session. The stock rose 4.3 per cent to Rs 511.45 on reports that Saudi Aramco could by majority stake in the company.

Bajaj Finance, Zee Entertainment, Grasim Industries, ONGC, Yes Bank, Wipro and Nestle India were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Hero MotoCorp, Vedanta, Hindalco, Asian Paints, NTPC, ITC and Power Grid were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 874 shares ended higher while 896 closed lower on the NSE.