Sensex, Nifty Resume Upmove After A Day's Pause

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes resumed their upmove on Friday after a day's pause in the previous session led by gains in HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, HDFC, NTPC, Power Grid and Axis Bank. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening and traded firm for most part of the day. However, due to a mild profit-booking in Reliance Industries, Infosys and Bharti Airtel in last hour of trade led to benchmarks come off intraday highs. The Sensex rose as much as 359 points and Nifty 50 index briefly moved above 11,400.

The Sensex ended 214 points or 0.56 per cent higher at 38,435 and Nifty 50 index climbed 0.53 per cent or 59 points to close at 11,372.

Buying was visible across the sectors as thirteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE ended higher led by the S&P BSE Power and Utilities indexes nearly 3 per cent gain. Banking, real estate, financial and state-run banking shares also witnessed buying interest.

On the other hand, metal, telecom, information technology and oil & gas shares witnessed selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as the S&P BSE MidCap index rose 0.57 per cent and S&P BSE SmallCap index rallied 1.41 per cent.

NTPC was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 5 per cent to close at Rs 106. Power Grid, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Nestle India, Sun Pharma, Eicher Motors and Grasim Industries were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Zee Entertainment, Hindalco, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, ONGC, Reliance Industries, JSW Steel, Infosys and Bharat Petroleum were among the losers.