The S&P BSE Senses and NSE Nifty 50 indexes rebounded after a day’s pause on the previous session on Friday led by gains in auto stocks. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening wherein the Sensex rose as much as 252 points and Nifty 50 index briefly moved above its important psychological level of 11,950. However, a mild selling pressure in select banking and pharma shares led to minor correction in the benchmarks from the day’s highest levels.
The Sensex ended 127 points or 0.31 per cent higher at 40,685 and Nifty 50 index advanced 34 points to close at 11,930.
Seven of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Auto index’s nearly 3 per cent gain. Information technology, metal, media and state-run banking shares also witnessed buying interest.
On the other hand, realty, private bank and pharma shares witnessed selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares witnessed buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.6 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced nearly 1 per cent.
Among the individual shares, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail rose as much as 6.58 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 163.50 on the BSE after the company informed exchanges that Walmart Inc’s Flipkart will buy a 7.8 per cent stake in the company for Rs 1,500 crore. Flipkart will buy 7.32 crore equity shares at Rs 205 per share aggregating to Rs 1,500 crore, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail said in a stock exchange filing.
Maruti Suzuki was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4 per cent to close at Rs 7,102. Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Power Grid, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, NTPC, Coal India, ITC, Adani Ports, Eicher Motors and Tech Mahindra also rose between 1-3 per cent.
On the flipside, UltraTech cement was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 2.4 per cent to close at Rs 4,502. HCL Technologies, IndusInd Bank, Hindustan Unilever, GAIL India, Hindalco, SBI Life, JSW Steel, Divi’s Labs and Grasim Industries were also among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,689 shares ended higher while 1,026 closed lower on the BSE.