The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes held on to gains despite coming off intraday highs in noon trading. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening tracking firm trading in other Asian markets wherein the Sensex rallied as much as 260 points and Nifty rose above its important psychological level of 11,400. Reliance Industries was top contributor in the Sensex. The stock rallied after the country’s most valued company gained after taking a majority stake in licensed e-pharma portal Netmeds.
As of 1:02 pm, the Sensex was up 180 points or 0.5 per cent at 38,708 and Nifty was at 11,433, up 48 points or 0.4 per cent.
The stock markets have been on an upswing despite the rising Covid-19 cases as the economy has been opening up after government allowed relaxations from Covid-19-induced lockdowns. The Sensex and Nifty are currently trading at new 5-month highs.
Meanwhile, seventeen of 19 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Realty index’s nearly 2 per cent gain. Capital goods, banking, auto, finance, industrials, capital goods and oil & gas shares were also witnessing buying interest.
On the other hand, IT shares were witnessing a mild selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap indexes rose over a per cent each.
Zee Entertainment was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 6 per cent to Rs 185 after it reported net profit of Rs 29 crore against loss of Rs 766 crore during the previous quarter. GAIL, Indian Oil, State Bank of India, UPL, HDFC Life, Tech Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, BPCL and Bharti Airtel were also among the gainers.
On the flipside, Tata Steel, Nestle India, Cipla, Britannia Industries, JSW Steel, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Eicher Motors and Dr Reddy’s Labs were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,765 shares were advancing while 888 were declining on the BSE.
