The Indian equity benchmarks gained for third day in a row on Thursday led by gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ITC, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance and Mahindra & Mahindra. The benchmarks fluctuated between gains and losses for most part of the day owing to volatility as weekly index futures and options expired, analysts said. The Sensex traded in a band of 549 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 17,543 and low of 17,380.
The Sensex ended 157 points higher at 58,807 and Nifty 50 index advanced 47 points to close at 17,517.
“Worries on the inflation front are definitely weighing on the banking stocks today, considering they could react sharply to inflation data,” Gaurav Garg, head of research at CapitalVia Global Research told news agency Reuters.
Eight of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Bank index’s over 0.5 per cent decline. Nifty Financial Services, IT, Private Bank, Realty, Healthcare and Consumer Durable indices also fell between 0.2-0.5 per cent.
On the other hand, Nifty Metal, Oil & Gas, Media, FMCG and Healthcare shares witnessed buying interest.
Mid- and small-cap shares outperformed their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index advanced o.65 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index gained 1.3 per cent.
Among the individual shares, Vodafone Idea on Thursday hit its 52-week high on the bourses after the stock spurted over 16 per cent, amidst reports that the firm has raised enough fund for the repayment of interest owed to bondholders within the December 13 deadline. On BSE, the stock surged 16.51 per cent to its 52-week high value of Rs 16.65.
ITC was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 5 per cent to close at Rs 236 after the company informed exchanges that it will hold ‘Institutional Investors and Financial Analysts Day’ on Tuesday, December 14.
Larsen & Toubro, Asian Paints, UPL, Britannia Industries, Reliance Industries, Hero MotoCorp, Eicher Motors, Coal India, Mahindra & Mahindra and Adani Ports also rose between 1-3 per cent.
On the flipside, HDFC Bank, Titan, Nestle India, SBI Life, NTPC, TCS, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Divi’s Labs, Power Grid, ONGC and Hindalco were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,111 shares ended higher while 1,165 closed lower on the BSE.
