Sensex, Nifty Extend Gains For Third Day; Bank, Auto Stocks Rise

Indian equity benchmarks on Tuesday extended their winning run for the third straight session amid volatile trade. Domestic indices swung between gains and losses during intraday deals before settling in the green on fag-end buying interest in bank and automobile stocks.

Globally, stocks in Asia were mixed, while U.S. stock futures traded higher after an overnight slide on Wall Street.

Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex rose 246 points or 0.45 per cent to close at 54,768 today, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 62 points or 0.38 per cent higher to settle at 16,341.

Mid- and small-cap shares finished on a strong note as Nifty Midcap 100 gained 0.67 per cent and small-cap climbed 1.02 per cent.

11 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- settled in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty Bank and Nifty Auto outperformed the NSE platform by rising as much as 1.02 per cent and 1.05 per cent, respectively.

However, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Oil& Gas fell as much as 0.25 per cent and 0.13 per cent, each

The overall market breadth stood positive as 2,031 shares advanced while 1,278 declined on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, M&M, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finserv, SBI, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, NTPC and Hindustan Unilever were among the top gainers with their shares up as much as 2.35 per cent.

In contrast, Nestle India, HCL Tech, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Dr Reddy's, Infosys, Asian Paints, Titan, ITC, PowerGrid and Tech Mahindra finished in the red.

Further, shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country's biggest insurer and largest domestic financial investor, fell 1.09 per cent to end at Rs 688.75.