Sensex, Nifty Gain; ICICI Bank Rallies, Reliance Industries Falls After Q2 Earnings

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes gained in afternoon trading led by buying in banking heavyweights like ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Axis Bank. However, gains were capped owing to losses in index heavyweight Reliance Industries. The benchmarks for most part of the day traded in a rangebound manner before advancing in afternoon trading. The Sensex touched an intraday high of 39,880.46 and low of 39,334.92 and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 11,697.35 and low of 11,557.40.

At 2:26 pm, the Sensex was up 282 points at 39,896 and Nifty was up 31 points at 11,673.

Eleven of 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE were trading lower led by the S&P BSE Oil & Gas index's over 5 per cent fall. Oil & gas, healthcare and auto shares were also witnessing selling pressure.

On the other hand, Banking index - Nifty Bank index climbed over 850 points led by gains in IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a mixed nite as S&P BSE MidCap index advanced 0.32 per cent and S&P BSE SmallCap index fell 0.67 per cent.

IndusInd Bank rose over 7 per cent after its asset quality improved in September quarter. Its gross nin-performing assets as a percentage of total advances improved to 2.21 per cent from 2.53 per cent in the previous quarter.

ICICI Bank gained 7 per cent after its profit rose more than six times to Rs 4,251 crore.

Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, HDFC, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv and Kotak Mahindra Bank also rose between 1.7-5 per cent.

On the flipside, Reliance Industries fell 7 per cent after its net profit in September quarter declined 15 per cent to Rs 9,567 crore.

Eicher Motors, Divi's Labs, HCL Technologies, TCS, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil, Britannia Industries, Tata Steel and Asian Paints also fell between 1.4-2.7 per cent.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,486 shares were trading lower while 1,056 were gaining on the BSE.