Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended in the green on Thursday, climbing for the fourth straight day, amid fresh foreign fund inflows and intense buying in IT and telecom stocks.
Buying in index majors Infosys and Reliance Industries added to the optimism in the equity market.
The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 348.80 points, or 0.58%, to close at 60,649.38. During the day, it gained 397.73 points, or 0.65%, to 60,698.31.
The broader NSE Nifty settled 101.45 points, or 0.57%, higher at 17,915.05.
“The market traded firm on the day of the monthly expiry and gained over half%. After a flat start, the Nifty index gradually moved north and finally closed at the day’s highest level of 17,915.05. Most sectors contributed to the move, with realty, IT and auto being the top gainers,” said Ajit Mishra, VP – Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd.
Among Sensex companies, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Titan, Reliance Industries and Nestle were major winners.
Hindustan Unilever, Power Grid, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, State Bank of India, Asian Paints and Wipro were the laggards.
In the Asian markets, Seoul, Japan, Shanghai and Hong Kong closed in the green.
Equity markets in Europe were trading in the positive zone. On Wednesday, US markets mostly closed with losses.
“The domestic market is gradually moving towards a positive zone, supported by FII inflows and positive fourth quarter earnings from banks. On the global front, the US Q1 GDP number to be unveiled today is expected to moderate on a QoQ basis amid concerns over banking transition and a slowing economy.
“Next week’s Fed policy will be closely watched,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
In the broader market, the BSE Smallcap gauge climbed 0.62% and the Midcap index climbed 0.52%.
Indices soared realty 1.57%, telecom 1.16%, IT (1.15%), tech (1.01%), auto (0.83%), metals (0.80%) and capital goods (0.72%).
The government itself emerged as a hanger-on.
On Wednesday, the BSE benchmark climbed 169.87 points or 0.28% to close at 60,300.58. The Nifty closed at 17,813.60, up 44.35 points or 0.25%.
Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.40% to $78.07 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Wednesday as they bought equities worth Rs 1,257.48 crore, according to exchange data.