The Indian equity benchmarks resumed their upmove after a day's pause in the previous session led by gains in Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening with Sensex rising as much as 528 points and Nifty touching an intraday high of 17,905. However, some profit booking during the noon deals at intraday highs led to a fall of over 700 points from the day’s highest level in the Sensex.
The Sensex advanced 143 points to close at 59,745 and Nifty 50 index rose 67 points to settle at 17,813.
“We witnessed some volatile movement in the market after a failed attempt to sustain the Nifty 50 Index level of 17,800. Our research suggests that 17,600 will be an important support level for the Nifty. If Nifty is able to sustain above 17,600, we can witness a positive momentum in the market which can lead to the higher levels near 18,000. Technical indicators suggest a volatile movement in the market," said Vijay Dhanotiya, senior research analyst at CapitalVia Global Research.
Ten of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Oil & Gas index's 1.2 per cent gain. Nifty Private Bank, Metal, IT, FMCG, and Bank indices also rose between 0.3-0.6 per cent.
On the other hand, Auto, Media, Pharma and Healthcare shares witnessed selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.5 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.4 per cent.
Cement sector shares witnessed strong buying interest during the session on reports that the cement companies have undertaken price hike to the tune of Rs 20 per bag. ACC, UltraTech Cement, Ambuja Cement, Shree Cement, Grasim Industries and India Cements surged between 2-15 per cent.
Grasim Industries was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 5 per cent to close at Rs 1,800, ONGC, Hindalco, HDFC Life, Shree Cement, Tata Consumer Products, Asian Paints, Britannia Industries and nestle India also rose between 1.4-4.2 per cent.
On the flipside, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro, Titan, HDFC, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Labs and Bajaj Auto were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,105 shares ended higher while 1,305 closed lower on the BSE.
