The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes extended gains in noon deals powered by a rally in banking shares. The Sensex rose as much as 466 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 11,686. With today’s gains, Sensex and Nifty rose to their highest levels in six months. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening as investors digested the US Federal Reserve’s policy shift to focus more on boosting economic growth and worrying less about inflation running too high.
As of 12:27 pm Sensex rose 318 points to 39,431 and Nifty 50 index climbed 96 points or 0.8 per cent to 11,656.
Banking shares were witnessing strong buying interest as the gauge of banking shares on the National Stock Exchange – Nifty Bank – index rose 3 per cent or 700 points to 24,310. Financial services, state-run banking, media and metal shares were also witnessing buying interest.
On the other hand, auto shares were witnessing a mild selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares were trading mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.85 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index was up 0.3 per cent.
Axis Bank was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 7 per cent to Rs 506. Bharti Infratel, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Grasim Industries, UPL, State Bank of India, Zee Entertainment, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel and Sun Pharma also rose between 2.5-7 per cent.
On the flipside, JSW Steel, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCOrp, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Asian Paints and Maruti Suzuki were among the losers.
