Sensex Climbs Over 200 Points, Nifty Above 10,600

Domestic stock markets swung between gains and losses during Thursday's trading session. At 1:39 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex traded at 35,390.36, up 248.37 points or 0.71 per cent while the Nifty50 index of the National Stock Exchange was at 10,637.80, with a gain of 61.50 points or 0.58 per cent. Thirty one out of 50 Nifty stocks gained in trade. The top five Nifty gainers, which gained between 3.23 per cent and 2.66 per cent, were Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Titan, Axis Bank and Tech Mahindra.

Losing between 1.32 per cent and 8.72 per cent, Grasim, Yes Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Ultracemco and GAIL were the top Nifty laggards.

Barring FMCG, IT and auto stocks all sectoral indices on the Nifty traded in the red.

On Wednesday, foreign portfolio investors bought while domestic institutional investors sold net shares worth Rs 277.38 crore and Rs 272.24 crore respectively, showed provisional NSE data.

In the Asian markets, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.15 per cent. Australian stocks rose 0.15 per cent while Japan's Nikkei shed 0.5 per cent.

Stock market gains in Asia were limited after Wall Street extended its recent decline in overnight trade. The S&P 500 fell for a fifth straight day as financial stocks were hit by fears that banking industry regulations would tighten once the Democratic Party takes control of the House of Representatives.

In the commodities market, US oil prices resumed declines on Thursday after an industry group said that American inventories had risen more than expected. US crude futures were down 33 cents, or 0.6 per cent, at $55.92 a barrel by 0004 GMT or 5:34 am IST. (With Reuters inputs)