Sensex, Nifty Rise For Sixth Straight Day Led By Realty, Private Lenders

Domestic equity benchmark indexes logged in sixth straight day of gains led by buying interest in private sector lenders like HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank. The S&P BSE Sensex rose 71 points or 0.19 per cent to end at 38,095 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced 35 points or 0.31 per cent to close at 11,462. Earlier in the day, the Sensex and Nifty surged to highest level in six months wherein the Sensex surged as much as 345 point and Nifty touching high of 11,530.

The stock markets have been on uptrend since last Monday on the back of strong foreign fund inflows. The foreign institutional investors have been buying shares since the start of this month, the foreign portfolio investors have so far purchased shares worth Rs. 17,919 crore, according to data compiled by National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).

In Friday's session alone, the foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs.4,323.49 crore, according to provisional figures on the National Stock Exchange.

Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Realty Index's 2.8 per cent gain. Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Bank and Nifty Media Indexes also climbed around 1 per cent each.

On the flipside, Nifty Auto and Information Technology Index were among the losers, closing down over 1 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares underperformed their larger peers as the S&P BSE MidCap Index fell 0.2 per cent and the S&P BSE SmallCap Index declined 0.13 per cent.

Indian Oil was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 3.65 per cent to Rs 163.10. Hindustan Petroleum, Bajaj Finance, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, Bharat Petroleum and JSW Steel were also among the gainers.

On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki was the top loser, the stock fell 2.57 per cent to Rs 6,902. Hero MotoCorp, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Larsen & Toubro and Infosys were among the laggards.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,537 shares declined while a little over 1,100 shares advanced on the BSE.