Sensex, Nifty Snap 3-Day Losing Streak Ahead Of Finance Ministry Briefing

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Indexes snapped their three-day losing streak ahead of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's press briefing due later in the day. Analysts said expectations from Finance Ministry to announce policy measures to revive economy helped the benchmarks recover in today's session. The Sensex and Nifty opened lower but staged a recovery noon deals led by Reliance Industries, HDFC, Tata Consultancy Services, Mahindra & Mahindra and Infosys. The Sensex intraday trade rose over 700 points from day's lowest level.

The Sensex ended 228 points or 0.6 per cent higher at 36,701 and the NSE Nifty 50 index advanced 88 points or 0.8 per cent to close at 10,829.

"Recovery in the markets has nothing to do with fundamentals. The fundamentals have not changed overnight. Hopes of policy announcements are causing a breather effect," Deven Choksey of KRChoksey Investment Managers told NDTV.

Sixteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended higher led by the S&P BSE Metal Index's 3.5 per cent gain.

S&P BSE Oil & Gas, Energy, Basic Materials, Auto, Utilities, and Telecom sector gauges also rose between 1.4-3.3 per cent each.

On the other hand, S&P BSE FMCG and Bankex indexes fell 0.8 and 0.3 per cent each respectively.

Mid- and small-cap shares ended in-line with their larger peers as the S&P BSE MidCap Index rose 0.9 per cent and the S&P BSE SmallCap Index climbed 0.6 per cent.

Zee Entertainment was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares. The stock rose 6.6 per cent to close at Rs 350. UPL, Vedanta, Yes Bank, Bharat Petroleum, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Grasim Industries and Indian Oil were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Eicher Motors, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank and Power Grid were among the losers.