Sensex, Nifty Gain For Third Day In A Row; Metal Shares Shine

The Indian equity benchmarks logged in third straight day of gains led by strong buying interest in metal shares, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Airtel and ITC despite domestic coronavirus cases clocking another record daily rise. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening wherein the Sensex rose as much as 468 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 14,863.05.

The Sensex ended 257 points or 0.52 per cent higher at 49,206 and Nifty 50 index advanced 98 points to close at 14,823.

Flushed with liquidity, the stock market looked past a record daily rise in domestic coronavirus cases of 414,188 which took the total tally to 21.49 million. Several states have entered lockdowns to curb the spread, which has led economists to cut growth expectations for Asia's third-largest economy.

"The market witnessed extension in the trend that started yesterday after breaching the important level of 14,700.The rally might continue till the level of 14,90," Ashis Biswas, head of technical research at CapitalVia Global Research told NDTV.

Buying was visible across the board as all the 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Metal index's 5 per cent gain. Nifty Media, Financial Services and Realty indices also rose between 0.7-1 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares ended on a mixed note as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.3 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.8 per cent.

Metal shares including Tata Steel, Hindalco and JSW Steel surged to their respective new highs on rising commodity prices.

HDFC advanced over 2.5 per cent to close at Rs 2,438.40 after its profit rose 42 per cent to Rs 3,180 crore.

Adani Ports, Bajaj Finserv, Indian Oil, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, UltraTech Cement and ITC also rose between 1.6-3.9 per cent.

On the flipside, Tata Consumer Products, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Eicher Motors, UPL, Bajaj Finance, Divi's Labs, Infosys, Power Grid, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan and Reliance Industries were among the losers.