Equity benchmarks returned to winning ways on Thursday after two days of declines as investors snapped up financial, pharma and IT stocks amid firm Asian cues.
The 30-share BSE Sensex soared 358.83 points or 0.69 per cent to finish at 52,300.47. Intra-day, the index swung between a high of 52,346.35 and a low of 51,957.92.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty climbed 102.40 points or 0.65 per cent to end at 15,737.75. Bajaj Finance topped the Sensex gainers' chart, rallying 7.29 per cent, followed by Bajaj FinServ, SBI, IndusInd Bank, Dr Reddy's, Tech Mahindra, ITC and Kotak Bank. On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, Maruti, HCL Tech, UltraTech Cement, PowerGrid, ONGC and Nestle suffered losses.Of the 30 shares in the Sensex pack, 23 ended with gains. "Ahead of US inflation data and European Central Bank policy meeting outcome, Indian equities reflected its Asian counterparts to trade on a positive note. "With faster vaccine coverage and off-loading of fiscal measures, the economic impact of Covid second wave will most likely be restricted to Q1 FY22, as per the monthly report of the Department of Economic Affairs. Gains in the market were broad-based with all major sectors except auto," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities, said bulls were charged up on weekly derivatives expiry day and broader markets saw selective buying in stocks which looked reasonable compared to their expensive larger peers.
